Hate Crimes: An Introspective View

Hate Crimes: An Introspective View

For hundreds of years, prejudice and discrimination has undermined and denigrated social and moral fibers, both domestically and globally. Prejudgment is based biased opinions that render assumptions or a conclusion with any supporting facts, which oftentimes is based on a frame of reference learned during childhood. Subsequently, discrimination is the action taken based on the prejudgment made on these assumptions. Unfortunately, the propensity to prejudge and to discriminate is derived from instilled family morals, values, and beliefs that perpetuate generationally. Hence, the residue of learned behaviors is manifested in various societal forums. Such forums breed prejudicial beliefs and discriminatory acts that further widen the communication gap within society. When the gap widens, the probability of narrowing the gap becomes difficult, if not improbable. Continued gaps create barriers, which are byproducts of ignorance and ethnocentrism. One such byproduct of ignorance and ethnocentrism is racism that fosters crimes of hate, which leaves a society confused as to its origin and rationale for unseemly behavior. Oftentimes, the fear of the unknown intensifies one's discomfort within societal variables, such as ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and socio-economic status. What is the impetus to developing open-minded individuals vs. close-minded individuals? Why does inferiority or superiority of social variables trigger crimes of hate? How can vial and heinous actions be eliminated? To gain a better perspective, hate crimes warrant a qualitative and quantitative view to understand the variables surrounding the nature of hate crimes. (Thesis Statement)

Social inequality is derived from aspects of prejudice, discrimination, and racism.

Importantly, prejudice is a widely held negative attitude toward a group (minority or majority) and its individual members. It is a generalization based on biased or insufficient information, which creates stereotypes. Moreover, generalizations are based on emotions, making them difficult to change even with evidence to the contrary. Stereotypes represent a set of ideas based on distortion, exaggeration, and oversimplification that are applied to all members of a group. As a result, a mental paradigm is created to justify unethical behavior against minority groups. Surprisingly, people who do not fit the stereotype are still categorized because it is easier justify the prejudice than to reexamine their way of thinking. It is important to note that one who is prejudice does not necessarily lead to discrimination. In contrast, racism is an extreme form of prejudice that assumes superiority of one group over another; it is extreme because not only it not only unfairly judges one group, but it assumes one group is superior to another. Hence, racists believe that discrimination is morally justified b/c of their superiority. Discrimination is manifested in many forms, such as avoiding social contact, denying access to authority positions, blocking access to exclusive clubs, organizations or neighborhoods. Extreme forms of discrimination include attacking and killing, such as hate crimes. Sadly, hate crimes are motivated by extreme prejudice, involving biasness related to race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry. Although statistics on hate crimes are new, the acts are not. Shockingly, the government did keep track of such crimes until 1900. By 2000, the number of crimes had increased, initiating crime laws to be passed in 43 states.