Essay On Hate Crime

Let’s start first with the legal definition of hate crimes. According to the congress, a hate crime is a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” (2015, January 07). Hate Crime—Overview. FBI. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov

What distinguishes a hate crime from other crimes is an underlying motivation based on the victim’s group membership. There has been much debate over the constitutionality of hate crime laws and which groups (if any) should be protected by such legislation. Those against hate crime laws argue that it is a violation of First Amendment protections of free, association, and freedom of thought. The Supreme Court confirmed that freedom of thought is implied by the First Amendment in R.A.V. v. St. Paul which those against hate crime laws argue makes such laws unconstitutional. The argument for hate crime laws is supported by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993) that hate crime laws punish conduct rather than thought.

property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” If an African American commits the same crime as an Caucasian it is more likely for the black person to be charged and arrested due to the racial issues we have today. There are many pros and cons towards the issue of racial crime, but hate crime is still a very difficult issue for our country to overcome. In order to overcome the issue of hate crime it would require changing legislation, public and police attitudes.

Hate speech—words or symbols targeted at a particular group or person that attack or intimidate them based upon sex, race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or gender—has recently become extremely controversial, especially in regards to college campuses. Although merely visual or verbal behaviors, hate speech can indirectly and directly cause physical and psychological harms. Philosophers Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic delve into the negative impact of hate speech in their essay “Words That Wound”, detailing exactly how supposed expressions of freedom of speech can detrimentally impact its victims. Such dire consequences thus call for targeted and threating speech to be banned in certain spaces in order to sustain a safe environment for the majority of people.

Over the last 500 years people of color, especially African American, have endured a pattern of state-sanctioned violence, civil and human rights abuse. To enforce capitalist exploitation and racial oppression the government and its police, courts, prisons, and military have beaten, framed, murdered, and executed private persons, while brutally repressing struggles for freedom, justice, and self-determination” (Fitzgerald, 2007). More often than not, police brutality has been a persistent problem faced by African Americans. “Historically, racist violence has been used to impose racial oppression and preserve white power and privilege. Racist violence has served five primary purposes: to force people of color into indentured, slave, peonage, or low wage situations; to steal land, minerals, and other resources; to maintain social control and to repress rebellions; to restrict or eliminate competition in employment, business, politics, and social life; and to unite “whites” across ethnic/national, class, and gender lines” (Fitzgerald, 2007). Throughout history, the failure of the government to protect black people from ruthless enforcement officers, forced blacks to act in their own interests. During the 1930s, the National Negro Congress organized massive rallies against police brutality, the Black Panther was created to stem the tide of police abuse, and in the 1970s the Congress of African Peoples sponsored the “Stop Killer Cops” Campaigns (Fitzgerald, 2007). The list goes on and on of groups and campaigns that African Americans formed to protect themselves from white supremacy and most importantly police brutality. Although some observers claim that racial profiling doesn’t exist, there are an abundance of stories and statistics that document the

Over the ages racism has been a constant matter in the United States of America, notably during Reconstruction. For the time being, this specific stage had a considerable impact on the country because it was known as the effort to give African Americans a voice, as well as reunify the nation after the tragic civil war. Although laws and compromises were put in place to pave a pathway to a better life for freedmen, they were ineffective. The Ku Klux Klan became known and African Americans lived in a constant state of fear, praying to escape from violence and murder. More than that, there were consecutive failures involved with reconstruction, including the limited necessities freedmen and women were supplied with and the black codes that were

White supremascists Shawn Berry Lawrence Russell Brewer and John King started a major racial controversy by murdering James Byrd Jr. It came as a shock to people when, for the first time in history, the press bothered to notice the lynching of a black man in Texas, society was astonished that they cared with such passion and vigor. Many American citizens found this appalling considering the country’s indifference to racial violence. Had it not been for the lynching of James Byrd Jr., the Hate Crimes Prevention Act would not exist, therefore countless acts of brutality would take place because there would not be any rules or resistance impeding them from committing the crime.

This moving event tide the gap between humans. The sign that read, "No human being is illegal" really inspired me. In the big picture, ignoring all the nitpicky options and details, people are people. Seeing how simply writing a statement and name on a poster can better ones day was truly amazing. All anyone could ask for is support. For people to show up and make their support present. One student spoke about the fear that marginalized groups deal with everyday due to recent events involving hate. She said acts like these must stop. In Barbara Perry’s article, Hate Crimes, she talks about America’s color-coded society. She explains that whiteness has been constructed to be the normal American standard. Every other color is susceptible to judgement because of this “ideal image” of the perfect American. No human being deserves to be hurt or judged over preexisting stereotypes. The best way to end hate is this. “This” being, brave individuals that speak up to gain

Sakia Gunn was a fifteen-year-old black teen who was violently targeted for a murdering due to her identifying as a lesbian. Leah Lakshmi realized the magnitude of this hate crime and used it as a platform to bring awareness to the situation. There has been and currently exists a structural problem that consistently harms people of color. Historically hate crimes were blatant, showing up as lynchings and other publicly violent portrayals. However, recently hate crimes have become more invisible. The murder of Sakia Gunn was a clear example of the structural discrimination against a minority: sentencing took longer than historical averages, media under covered the event, and the murders got punished less severely. By having a poem about Sakia Gunn, Leah Lakshmi is remembering an event that many do not remember and forcing readers to remember the structural flaws within the system.

/11 changed the way of American life. Many lives were lost due to the awful attack, but unfortunately many Arab and Muslim Americans had to pay for the cost. Post 9/11 is a continuous struggle for many Muslim Americans. Due to 9/11 many Muslims face discrimination, racial prejudice, and hate crimes. All throughout our history, hate crimes were targeted towards minority groups, such as: African Americans, Latinos, Italians, Irish, Germans, and Asians; today, hate crimes are targeted towards Muslims. Prior to 9/11 Muslim Americans faced little to zero discrimination in the US because of their race or religion. Muslim Americans are targeted and stereotyped against. In the years 2001-2003 the number of hate crimes throughout the Muslim community

A black man falls casualty in a car accident after a white male driver fails to stop his car. On his social media page, posts containing racist comments are found throughout his page. The black community voice their outrage on this crime by commenting, "This is an attack against our society!" Many people argue, that for such cases, a hate crime law needs to be instated and enforced; however, in the article "Should Hate Be a Crime?" a man named James B. Jacobs argues against the legislation of hate crime laws. In this article, Jacobs successfully makes his argument by remaining objective, appealing more toward the ethos and logos of the reader, and limiting emotional language.

Hate crimes can happen anywhere, anytime, or to anyone. A hate crime is an act of violence that is prompted towards a person or group of people based on aspects that make them different from a specific group such as race, religion, or sexual orientation. Hate crimes occur when there is a dominant person or group over another. As defined by Merriam-Webster, a hate crime is “any of various crimes (as assault or defacement of property) when motivated by hostility to the victim as a member of a group (as one based on color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation).” A history of hate crimes have begun long before the 1900s, however, the arrival

Beth Loffreda, author of “Losing Matt Shepard,” accentuates the bewilderment that raged through America following the death of Matt Shepard. Matthew Shepard was a twenty-one year old, University of Laramie student in Wyoming when his life was ripped from him. Shepard, described as a small barely over a hundred pound young man, “In dramatic and widely reported testimony, Fluty [ the biker who found Shepard] would later state that at first she thought Matt would have been no older than thirteen, he was so small( Matt was only five feet two inches, barely over one hundred pounds),” ( Loffreda 371) was out alone on a Tuesday night when he picked up Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. The two men led him to their car and drove to the edge of

A pleasant morning to all of you. Thank you for being here listening to me. Today, I am going to talk about racial discrimination.

"Racism is an ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups that devalues and renders inferior those groups that reflects and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society."