Hate Crime Essay

A hate crime is a crime motivated by prejudice and typically involves violence. People are usually discriminated against for race or ethnicity. An offender builds up anger and takes it out on innocent people for being themselves. “According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Annual Report on Hate Crimes, there were 6,222 hate crimes reported in 2011 and the FBI classified the crimes as motivated by perpetrator bias as follows: 46.9% racial bias, 20.8% sexual orientation bias, 19.8% religious bias, 11.6% ethnicity/national origin bias, and 0.9% disability bias. Of those classified as motivated by racial bias, 71.9% were victims of a perpetrator’s anti-black bias” (Toporeka, 2013). All through time, this system of animosity has contributed to the institution of oppression and other dreadful crimes. If this is not bad enough, the justice system has racism within itself. If a person of one race or ethnicity commits a crime, the courts will treat a person of a different race or ethnicity differently. There have been numerous cases where the court’s ruling was influenced by just looking at a person. There have been certain laws put into effect that mostly target one racial group. These criminalities affect society as much as the victims. Hatred towards the way people look is not a biological trait; it is something that is taught from birth. We live in such an impressionable society that focuses on stereotypes. During a presidential primary debate on Martin Luther King Day, Senator Barack Obama stated that blacks and whites “are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences . . . f...

... middle of paper ...

...m, the immediate thought is white-on-black. This is not always the case. Very few people know about the thousands of whites who have been brutally murdered, raped, beaten, and robbed by blacks because the media rarely mentions it (Papaherakles, 2012). This does not mean that every black or white person is innocent or guilty. Racism is a disease that infects the lives of many, but some more than others. The justice system claims to be fair to all, but various court rulings are inadequate when the two parties are of different race. Some laws are created in favor of one race and can leave guilty people with more simple sentences. Racism is influencing society in a negative sense. It is creating partitions between groups and turning people away from each other. This is a growing problem and future generations need to be taught differently in hopes for a better humanity.