Confronting the New Faces of Hate - Hate Crimes in America - Essay Example

Hate Crime Anthology Confronting the new faces of hate: hate crimes in America. Take an example of the lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals, gays and the Hispanic community in America. It is a fact that not everybody in the country approves their sexuality or tolerates their ethnic backgrounds. Heated debates are everywhere and the tendency of people going overboard with it is on the rise. They are victims of hate crime. That is what they have to live with each and every day which interferes with the quality of their lives (Jackson 26). What is worrying is that it takes the occurrence of a hate crime against the lesbians, gays, transsexuals and the Hispanics for it to be recognized as a menace that is prevalent in the American society. The real question as to what motivates the perpetrator of a hate crime elusive to be addressed by the concerned people at positions of power (Grigera 13). Why does it have to take the death of a gay person for actions to be taken? Why are the actions not appropriate? Why are the numbers of hate crimes shooting upwards? For a fact, there is growing intolerance to the gay community. The rising numbers of hate crimes do better to showcase the alarming situation. The lesbian, gay, bisexuals and transgender persons are not only the hate crimes recipients. It seems hidden but as showcased by the report “Confronting the new faces of Hate: Hate crimes in America, 2009 by Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF), the concern also boils over to hate crimes against Hispanics, Jews, African Americans, Asian pacific Americans, individuals with disabilities, women, juveniles, Arab Americans, Muslims and Sikhs. The articles that are encompassed in this anthology: Richard Kim’s The Truth about Hate Crimes, LCCREF’s Confronting the new faces of Hate: Hate crimes in America, 2009 and Christina Constantini’s Anti-Latino Hate Crimes Rise As Immigration Debate Intensifies strive to air the issues behind several kinds of hate crimes with concern on the perpetrators and the circumstance that causes such actions. There are common issues that are behind hate crimes of different kinds. The reader also notices that hate crimes in different places may tend to take the same route and be caused by the same trigger. There are further insights presented by the articles in addition to the issues behind and the triggers that impact the perpetrators. Each article, though unique in its own way compliments the other in relation to hate crimes. The reader realizes that hate crimes are partly or majorly condoned by members of a particular group that feels threatened, therefore, providing some kind of motivation to those people among the group, who decide to take action and actually do something regarding the threat they perceive to be posed against them. This serves to raise the question that if some groups actually condone the hate crimes and somehow motivate the perpetrators, where can the line that defines a “hate crime” be drawn considering the motivators are part of the legal and criminal systems and what is the ideal action to take in relation to the triggers? The choice of the articles articulates the need to focus on the menace of hate crimes by assessing the issues around them. The authors of these articles do well to illustrate the issues in hate crimes through different examples and stylistic devices. LCCREF’s Confronting the new faces of Hate: Hate crimes in America, 2009, addresses the rise in hate crimes reported in recent years and the various reactions to it. By focusing on immigrant groups that have become citizens in America, LCCREF has gathered statistics in the years prior to 2009 to show the trend in hate crimes. It is notable that although this research was conducted in 2009, there remains an identical trend in hate crimes up to date. The trend shows an increase in the number of hate crimes. This report contributes to further knowledge regarding hate crimes by examining the input of the legal systems in the issue of hate crimes. It contributes to the debate that concerns how the federal and state governments in America are addressing this issue. The common thing is that there are conflicts that concern the people who are recipients of hate crime. In one way or another, it serves to increase the motivation of the perpetrators to continue doing what they are doing due to lack of consequences. The article coupled with findings by other independent researchers concludes that many potential victims of hate crimes are likely to fail to report such crimes against them (12). This is because they fear that they illegal immigration statuses may be exposed and leads to their deportation. This also provokes the debate of immigration and how they are handled. It also raises the question, are the shortcomings in the immigration department affecting the nation’s way of handling crime? It is the Hispanic people that are commonly associated with crime. However, the trend since 2010 show that they are recipients of hate crime. The statistics show that their presence in America sparks a level of discomfort in some natives. They have their property destroyed or even killed because of there is a threat that the white majority continues to dwindle and will become a minority by 2043.According to Mark Potok, a chief editor of Intelligent Report, the crimes against the Hispanic are contributed to the increasing anger in relation to America’s demographic changes which spell the loss of the majority who are whites (Constantini 1). Question emerges as to the real reason hate crimes are directed towards the Hispanic. Could it be only that the white majority fell threated? Could it be that it is a sum of other factors. One thing is sure; population threat is a major contributing factor. Christiana Constatini’s article, Anti-Latino Hate Crimes Rise As Immigration Debate Intensifies, focuses on the extent of hate crime against the Hispanic and their significance on measures to control immigration issues. The writer, through several examples exposes how members of the Hispanic community are threatened, hurt and killed by extremist groups that feel threated. Pew Research concludes that more than 50% of the Hispanic people living in the U.S are immigrants and their numbers continue to increase. A good number of those immigrants assert that they are in constant fear of being attacked. Scholars have engaged in research to identify the correlation between the crime rates and the immigration trends. Most of the research has proven positive. This implies that the rate of immigration is directly proportional to the crime rate against the Hispanic population. It is raw that the threat of diminishing majority white population increases the desire to commit crime against the Hispanic immigrants. The numbers of hate crime based on ethnicity are overwhelming and threaten to surpass those against the race. In light of the rising cases, the debate of immigration reforms becomes heated. Groups that are opposed to the immigration reforms such as the Federation for American Reform and NumbersUSA associate immigrants especially those of Hispanic descent with all kinds of ills that grace compromise the security of United States (LCCREF 14). A legal intervention and loophole comes about on realization that these groups are known to have links with anti-immigration extremist groups. It becomes sad to note that instead of pursuing diplomatic solutions to the immigration problems and help curb hate crimes, some of the trusted groups serve to motivate the perpetrators of the hate crimes. The common way to deal with hate crimes against the Latinos and other immigrant groups will require another dimension as the society has shown preferences in their actions and does not help in dealing with the issue. Christian share he sentiments of George Gascone, San Francisco district attorney “ It’s going to take a lot of good people with a lot of good intentions on both sides of the immigration debate to shift the dialogue away from race ethnicity and back to the policies” (Constantini 1). Certainly, that is the way to handle the immigration issues. While LCCREF article and Christina Constantini’s article on the Huffington’s post demand presence of people guided by the essentials of morality and goodwill in handling the debate on immigration reforms, Richard Kim prioritizes pursuing hate crime legislations to tackle all kinds of hate crime. These hate crime apply for both the sexuality crimes and race or ethnicity hate crimes. According to Richard, seeking hate crimes legislations will ensure that that sentencing guidelines are tightened, expand federal reach and promote appropriate compilation of hate crime data so as to act on the trend. The article differs from the other two in that it seeks a more judicial approach while the other seeks a policy approach to dealing with hate crimes. However, Richard shows an essential detail that is omitted in seeking judicial measures to curb hate crimes. He confirms that while judicial measures may serve to show like something it being done, they do not deal with the root causes of the hate crimes- they do not address the triggers and motivators of hate crimes. LCCREF’s report notes a rise in white extremist groups that are guided by misconceptions. These misconceptions range from feeling threatened and that the immigrants or the gay community is interfering with the quality of their lives. Richards’s article provides a way to deal with hate crimes that is practical for all the hate crimes addressed in the three articles. The solution incorporates an initial practice of laying a tolerant frame starting from the community level. This way, the policies and judicial measures are likely to show significant positive results. Community antiviolence, education and outreach programs are ideal to stop the “Gay-bashing” and immigrant persecution since they transform the social environment in which the hate crimes occur (Kim 20). Richard asserts that there is need to direct more resources to such community projects as much as policies and judicial measures are pursued. While the extents and nature of hate crimes against the gays, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals is different from the Hispanic community, policies and community based measures coupled by judicial measures do well to reduce the crimes. Richard’s recommendations are relevant to the immigration issues. It is ideal to teach through educational workshops in schools, social services agencies that there are better ways to deal with discomforts caused by other groups of ethnic and racial background. They should be made to have faith in federal and state systems. Additionally, training in police academies and other government agencies concerning Hispanic and sexuality related discomforts serves to remove racial and homophobic intolerances (Kim 20). Richard article comes to the aid of curbing hate crime by providing more applicable and effective solutions. Therefore, it compliments LCCREF findings and recommendations for action. Christina article Huffington Post brings to light the atrocities that face the Hispanic community and the purported measures to curb hate crimes this shows a relevant relationship between the articles as they relate in a manner that helps see the situation as it is and develop recommendations. Therefore, through this anthology, the reader can understand the dynamics of the hate crimes and helps invoke a desire to consider the magnitude and the circumstances of hate crimes in devising solutions. Additionally, it challenges the reader’s justification of hate crimes and helps him or her examine the role of groups in dealing with hate crimes. Evidently, it has been revealed that some of the groups opposing policies may be liaising with extremist groups and providing motivation for hate crimes. Even though these articles do not deal with the aspects of post crime transformation comprehensively, they address precautionary solutions well and could possibly be integrated in curriculums and programs teachings in the concerned groups especially the extremist groups. Works Cited Costantini, Cristina. "Anti-Latino Hate Crimes Rise As Immigration Debate Intensifies." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. . Grigera, Elena. "Hate Crimes: State and Federal Response to Bias-Motivated Violence." Corrections Today 1 Aug. 1999: 14. Print. Jackson, Mary S. Policing in a diverse society: another American dilemma. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2006. Print. Kim, Richard. "The Truth about Hate Crimes Laws." The Nation 12 July 1999: 20. Print. Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund , (LCCREF). "Confronting the New Faces of Hate: Hate Crimes in America, 2009." Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) 2 (2009): 1-50. Print. Read More