Hate Crimes
Why aren’t I surprise that blacks are in the highest group with
respect to hate crimes? Throughout
history there has been ongoing cycle of hate crimes involving African American my
dates back to the Civil War where
Confederate Soldiers were killed in the defense of slavery and once they lost
the war they developed a hatred toward blacks. This is also the case during the
Civil Rights Era where Jim Crowe Law ruled in many southern states. This created a vicious cycle of
discrimination and hatred that was passed down from generation to generation (Banks. C page 78)
This hatred extends into politics arena the conservative
movement which has expressed dissatisfaction in the Civil Rights Amendment of
1964 saying that minorities have an even playing field when it comes to
employment, housing and education. Conservatives who ruled in the past believe
that they are losing their country to Liberals who want minority rights,
citizenship for illegal aliens, and same sex marriage.
It’s my belief that Fox News and its conservation views had the
ability to spread hatred propaganda and polarizes it viewers.
Banks, C.
(2013). Criminal Justice
Ethic.
(3rd ed., pp. 78-81). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
Hello Joel Snowden
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the issue of media having an influence on how hate crimes are reported and can have a positive or negative impact based on the political party or the financial backing of the network. Fox news is known for its conservative biased views and I watch it sometimes simply as a gauge of how political policies and controversial issues are being received and discussed by self-proclaimed political experts who sometimes use fear and subversive tactics to justify their opinion. I will never forget how incensed I was when President Obama was first elected as the first African American President of the United States and Fox thought it appropriate to run a series of “Planet of the Apes” movies that same week. But I thank God that Fox does not represent the majority of people in society; if it did, we would not have a Black president.
Hate Crimes are defined by the Hate Crime Statistics Act as “crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity” (Banks, 2013, p. 78). It order to prosecute a crime as a hate crime there must be a motive that links the crime to one of these motives: swastika graffiti, offense language, prior bias-based criminal activity, etc.. Hate crime statistics show that “61% hate crime incidents were motivated by race and 11% by ethnicity, and that the majority of such incidents involved a violent offense…crimes such as rape or other sexual assault and a minority with property crimes” (Banks, 2013, p. 78). Hate crimes were motivated by race 55% of the time and African Americans were targeted in 6 out of 10 incidents. With these types of statistics, who would claim that racism is a thing of the past?
As a child my father told me that White people were evil and that if given the opportunity they would rape, hang, skin me alive and kill me. That was his experience; so fear and anger were his defense mechanisms. I believed him and lived with that fear the first seventeen years of my life. When I was a junior in high school my father sent to live with my brother in Washington, D.C. My first weekend there, Joan, my sister-in-law, had a party and she invited a smorgasbord of races, religions, colors, and creeds. There were Blacks, Whites, Jamaicans, Jews, Africans, Indians, and Latinos all over the place acting like they really liked each other. I hid under the dining room table in utter terror most of the night, waiting for something bad to happen. I thought my sister-in-law had lost her mind, mingling with the enemy. After everyone had left I asked her why she hung out with them folks. She said that hurt had no color; and anyone is capable of hurting you and the color of the person does not make the hurt any easier. It is in the quality of the friends you choose, not the color. I still use this standard when selecting friends and have fared well. Unfortunately those who continue to act on their fears, insecurities and just plain ignorance never had a Joan in their lives who challenged them to open their hearts and minds to the idea that people are just people; each one capable of good and bad, to be judged not buy the color of their skin but by the integrity of their character.
Hello Joel Snowden
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the issue of media having an influence on how hate crimes are reported and can have a positive or negative impact based on the political party or the financial backing of the network. Fox news is known for its conservative biased views and I watch it sometimes simply as a gauge of how political policies and controversial issues are being received and discussed by self-proclaimed political experts who sometimes use fear and subversive tactics to justify their opinion. I will never forget how incensed I was when President Obama was first elected as the first African American President of the United States and Fox thought it appropriate to run a series of “Planet of the Apes” movies that same week. But I thank God that Fox does not represent the majority of people in society; if it did, we would not have a Black president.
Hate Crimes are defined by the Hate Crime Statistics Act as “crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity” (Banks, 2013, p. 78). It order to prosecute a crime as a hate crime there must be a motive that links the crime to one of these motives: swastika graffiti, offense language, prior bias-based criminal activity, etc.. Hate crime statistics show that “61% hate crime incidents were motivated by race and 11% by ethnicity, and that the majority of such incidents involved a violent offense…crimes such as rape or other sexual assault and a minority with property crimes” (Banks, 2013, p. 78). Hate crimes were motivated by race 55% of the time and African Americans were targeted in 6 out of 10 incidents. With these types of statistics, who would claim that racism is a thing of the past?
As a child my father told me that White people were evil and that if given the opportunity they would rape, hang, skin me alive and kill me. That was his experience; so fear and anger were his defense mechanisms. I believed him and lived with that fear the first seventeen years of my life. When I was a junior in high school my father sent to live with my brother in Washington, D.C. My first weekend there, Joan, my sister-in-law, had a party and she invited a smorgasbord of races, religions, colors, and creeds. There were Blacks, Whites, Jamaicans, Jews, Africans, Indians, and Latinos all over the place acting like they really liked each other. I hid under the dining room table in utter terror most of the night, waiting for something bad to happen. I thought my sister-in-law had lost her mind, mingling with the enemy. After everyone had left I asked her why she hung out with them folks. She said that hurt had no color; and anyone is capable of hurting you and the color of the person does not make the hurt any easier. It is in the quality of the friends you choose, not the color. I still use this standard when selecting friends and have fared well. Unfortunately those who continue to act on their fears, insecurities and just plain ignorance never had a Joan in their lives who challenged them to open their hearts and minds to the idea that people are just people; each one capable of good and bad, to be judged not buy the color of their skin but by the integrity of their character.
Joel: You have addressed a very controversial subject in an objective manner and have stated your position well. Professor Taylor
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