Position paper

                                                                          Racism/Hate crimes position paper

            “In a three and a half years span of time 22,000 vandalisms were committed and are thought to be motivated by bias and hate.”(Harlow) This is normal to some families of different race in America. Yet some people don’t even think racism exists. Some white people even think that racism should be legal for whites but other people cannot be racist back. How are whites any better than anyone else? People are being beaten and robbed because of the way they look or what they believe or even what they do. Those types of crimes are known as hate crimes. Laws against racism and punishment for offenders need to be stricter because people are being abused and violence is breaking out.

            Hate crimes are putting many races in danger and it needs to stop. A crime becomes a hate crime when the person chooses a target based on race or religion. 2/3 hate crimes are usually lone offenders. It is estimated that 3% of all violent crimes are hate crimes. “In about half of hate crimes, the victim was threatened verbally or assaulted without either a weapon or an injury being involved” (Harlow).

Racism leads to violence and prejudice and people are getting hurt which creates a problem for the environment of people around them. The Ku Klux Klan is an example of a racist group that went around harassing, beating and killing people that are not white this is an individual racism group. When there is racism in the work place this makes the environment for the co-workers around a little awkward and uncomfortable because they have to chose sides. Racism is cause and effect if one person is racist to this person that person is going to get it right back. “Most hate crimes described by victims accompanied violent crimes--a rape or other sexual assault, robbery, or assault (84%). The remaining 16% were associated with property crimes--burglary or theft.”(Harlow)

Migration creates more diverse populations and people need to learn to except these people and befriend them. Although back and whites are seen as the main opposing sides to racism it includes all races and non-dominating groups. Racism can be political and social towards entire ethnic groups. Some people support individual racism which is the racism towards entire groups of people because of their group’s norm. “The voluntary—and involuntary—migration and settlement of different ethnic groups meant that most societies were now made up of racially diverse populations.” (Gale student resource center)

The United States where founded and built on racism. Racism is the ideology that whites are superior to people of color, and the practices arising from that ideology--is as fundamental to the creation of the United States as are Enlightenment notions of liberty, such as religious freedom. Times have changed and treating people hatefully because of race isn’t right. The United States constitution says all men were created Equal.

Racism is important to the structure of the U.S. and isn’t just people hating races. “Racism, like race itself, is fundamental to the U.S. power structure and is an invention of culture, not simply of the law.” (Mankiller) Racism still is against the law. The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act is effective from January 1, 2002 and protects other races from racism.

Hate crimes are not legal nor are they proper in modern day’s society. People shouldn’t be discriminated against because they are different races. Sure the united states were founded on racism but we are a totally new country now then we were back then. Even though it’s an invention of culture it is a bad culture that should never have been created. People are protected by the la and we shouldn’t be mean to them anyway we are all equals. We should accept the other races that we have in America because we are a free country. Racist hate crimes are affecting entire communities and there need to be stricter laws to prevent the hostility between races, ethnic groups and religious groups.

Works Cited

Gerzina, Gretchen. “Racism” Encyclopedia Americana. 2010. Grolier online. Web. 19 Sept. 2010

Harlow, Caroline Wolf. "Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police." BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS SPECIAL REPORT. Nov. 2005: 1-12. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 03 Oct 2010.

Mankiller, Wilma and others “racism.”  The Readers companion to U.S. women’s History. Dec. 1 1998:

            n.p. SIRS researcher. Web. 24 Sep 2010.

“Racism.” Gale student resources in context. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale student resources in context.       Web. 19 sept. 2010