Teniesha Hayes
CJC 214
John Annis
October 28, 2010
Hate Crimes The word hate is described as having a strong distaste for something or someone. It is a very harsh word that is loosely thrown around in conversation without thinking of the negativity that word can bring. To some individuals who feel they have to act out their hate end up committing hate crimes or a criminal act against the very thing they hate. According to the UCR (Uniform Crime Report) from the FBI databases in 2008 there were 7,783 hate crimes reported. Of the reported crimes religious, racism, and sexualism are a few that cause so many communities to be divided against each other. Religious discrimination is defined as treating a person or a group differently because of what they do or don’t believe. Freedom of religion is an individual’s constitutional right. We should be free to express our religion without feeling we will be prosecuted for doing so. Our country is so culturally diverse and every individual culture has embraced a specific religious practice that speaks to them and their family. Our different religious practices range from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhism and Christianity beliefs. Now there are some that believe that their religious practices are superior to others and that can cause conflicts between cultures. But really people are afraid of what they don’t understand and to those particular people they seem to commit harsh crimes against individuals who are embracing their human right. One of the biggest crimes we have seen against a religious practice seems to be the Muslim culture. Ever since 9/11 and the attack of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon there are those scared individual’s who believe that all that practice this religion are terrorist and should not be alive because of the choices some made when they caused one of the most horrible incident of our country. The terrorist who brought down these buildings were Muslims, but not all Muslims are terrorists so some people are ignorant to that fact so because of the ignorance and fear some commit crimes. They burn churches or vandalize their places of worship, attack families, and assault them with weapons. Even teenagers get involved and commit these violent acts. It’s not right to judge or discriminate and those that do will face some form of consequences one way or another. Racism has been around for years. It is defined as having hatred towards someone because of their skin, color, language or because they were born in a different place and believing that one race is superior to another. Because of this hatred we have seen slavery, and wars. For the most part studies have shown that crimes are usually committed against African Americans and Hispanics. Some crimes are committed against other races but not as high. A recent racially inspired hate crime that publicly put the white and black race against each other was Jena Six. Six black teenagers were convicted of beating a fellow white student in Jena, Louisiana. There were reports of noose hangings and arson. All which people and the media help portrayed all the incidences to be racially motivated. Some believed that the boys’ charges were so extreme and not fair. There were petitions, online followings, rallies in the streets of Jena, Louisiana with famous people and people from all over the U.S in attendance supporting the fact that the punishment did not fit the crime and that their white counterparts punishments for similar crimes did not receive the same penalties. These cases split the races against each other in the city of Jena. It seems that the black and white races seem to be most publicized which could have something to do with the years of slavery. There are racial hate crimes within the workforce, in schools, and law enforcement. We all remember the infamous police brutality case of Rodney King and the videotape that showed it all. There was reason to believe that the Duke Lacrosse case involving a black female accusing three white Duke University students of raping her at a party was racially motivated. No matter how hard we try the world will always be filled with criminal acts that attack some form of race, whether it be whites against blacks, Hispanic against blacks, and Asians against Native Americans. Unfortunately racism will always exist. Hate towards sexual orientation is a very controversial topic. These crimes are directed towards a person who identifies themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex. They are attacked by individual people, or a group of people and church groups who hate what they believe they represent. In 2004, sexual orientation was the third largest hate crimes of all the hate crimes. A person who chooses to be gay is viewed to be morally wrong, and disgusting. In 1993, Brandon Teena was raped and murdered in Nebraska. He was born as a female but identified as a transgender man. He was seen as an awkward person and a tomboy. He dressed in men’s clothing, bound his breast to further look like a male and even tried to join the Army but because he lied about his gender therefore he could not join. His life came crashing down when he was arrested and the arrest was in the local newspaper under his birth name and his friends found out he was born a female. His so called friends assaulted and raped him and because he went to the hospital to receive treatment they found out and killed him along with two other people that were in the home. His story was depicted in the movie Boys Don’t Cry. Sometimes the crime is done by the hand of a family member. In September 1999, Steen Fenrich was killed by his stepfather his body was found dismembered in March of 2001 with the phrase “gay nigger number one” on his skull along with his social security number, his father later committed suicide. Not all crimes against gays result in death. Some are assaulted, rape, and beaten so badly they have to fight for their life and some lose that battle. Again people are afraid of what they don’t understand and that hatred can lead up to terrible crimes committed by people who feel threaten or just downright appalled. In the end, hate is all around us in some shape or form. People are so afraid of what is not considered to be normal to them. When it comes to religion an individual has the right to practice what they feel in their hearts. Some people are born to believe a certain way and some adapt a particular religion that speaks to them when they are older to choose. Freedom of religion is a constitutional right and to the individuals who try to take that away by committing horrible crimes should be punished. Just like the same why they should be punished for targeting someone because they are of a different racial background. We cannot choose the color of our skin but we can choose not to target those who are different from us. Even when we target the LGBTQI community we are basically saying that they are not human beings but that they are creatures not need to be squished as if they are insects. It is inhumane to treat people like they are not a person. We are sending the wrong message to our youth. We should be leading by example and treating people how we want to be treated with dignity and respect. I believe there is such a thing as karma and whatever bad things we put out, we get it back twice as hard. Hate crimes don’t just exist in the U.S. but all over the world people are being attacked because people choose to be individuals. Each one of us are different people and special it is what makes us unique and come together and share our experiences as a nation. To take someone’s individuality away from them should not be tolerated and if we take the law into our own hands and a crime is committed then the justice system should provide the necessary punishment for the action.

Work Cited

U.S Federal Government. The FBI Federal Bureau if Investigations. 2010. 26 Oct 2010 < http://www.fbi.gov/about- us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2008

Shah, Anup. Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All. 2010. 25 Oct 2010 <http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism>

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 2010. 26 Oct. 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>