Hate Crimes Are Not Special

America is known for its diversity. Having such diversity has both positive and negative effects. For one, not all Americans agree with such diversity. Prejudice has promoted some Americans to act in, what most would consider, immoral ways. These acts are referred to as “hate crimes.” Hate crimes, however, are not any more serious than other “crimes of passion.”

The main purpose of the hate crime legislation is to protect minority groups. Generally there are two sides to the debate on hate crime legislation. Most common argument “A hate crime is unlike any other crime.” On the opposite side we often hear “A crime is a crime.” Crimes are not only graded on intensity, but on motivation. Your motivation often increases your penalty. For example, an unintended murder will get a lesser charge than a murder that happened because of infidelity.
Hate crimes have sparked movements that have changed our view on what morality is. Hate is defined as: intense animosity or dislike. Here is what the law considers a “hate crime”; “a hate crime is a criminal act in which a victim is selected because of the perpetrator's prejudice against the victim's race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation and/or disability (Ponte).“ Under the aforementioned definition of “hate,” rape is a hate crime. However, under “hate crime” laws unless the rape was done because of the victim’s race, sexual orientation, creed, or disability, the rape would be just another crime. The law doesn’t consider hate for gender a “hate crime.”
A good example of a hate crime: Martin Luther King Jr was a victim. Murdered in a hotel room, he was well known, admired and hated for standing up for black American rights. President Lincoln, another victim of a hate crime. Shot in the back of the head while at a theater, he was loved, admired and hated because he didn’t follow the majority. Slavery seemed wrong to him. John Lennon was the victim of a hate crime. Shot while onstage, he, too, was loved, admired and hated. Hated because he saw the world much differently than most and felt he had to say it though his music. Of course there are plenty of other victims who were never known who died and/or were victimized by those who hated them for some reason or another.
It wasn’t until 1990 that Congress started passing legislation to help prevent hate crimes starting with the “Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990.” Next was the “Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996.” The last one to pass was the “Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999.” Until this time no one kept record of recorded hate crimes. In fact the number is 15% higher then FBI statistics reflect, according to a new government report.
About 44% of hate crimes don’t make it into the FBI statistics for many reasons. These reasons include not accurately being reported, police failing to record crimes, and some police departments may not report hate crimes. Data shows that 84% of hate crimes were violent in some manner. Non-hate crimes make up only 23% of all crimes.
Although a “hate crime” may be harsh and considered immoral by some, it is no different from any other crime. Some studies have suggested that hate crimes are somehow harder on the victim. Exactly how do you make worse, worse? If you are victimized, regardless of why, is it not going to have the same effect? Under the hate crime legislation, two people who have committed the same crime will receive two different sentences because of this legislation if one of them is found as having committed their crime out of hate. Taking that fact into consideration and adding that “hate crimes” don’t include all hate, this makes the legislation unfair.
Being not only a woman and a minority, but also an Atheist, I have some experience with hate crimes. A few months ago someone was scratching up my license plates. A few years before this I had a note left on my car when I parked at a local grocery store. People have made several comments while driving by me, the most famous one being “Jesus loves you!” in a very threatening tone. There is the added danger of people cutting me off while on the freeway. This is a ploy to get in front of me in order to show off some bumper sticker that shows their religion’s supremacy. I often wonder if they think it’s moral to put my children in danger just because they don’t agree with what I don’t believe in. All this happens because I’ve exercised my freedom of speech and personalized my license plate to say “UNBLVR” meaning unbeliever. Before that, no one knew I was an Atheist. Not surprisingly, I could not find any statistics on hate crimes committed against Atheists. One reason why may be that there is no word for discrimination against people without religious beliefs. Another is that fear motivates many nonbelievers to stay silent about the abuse.
So, armed with first hand experience and having done research, I say to you this; in order for this legislation to work it would have to include all hate crime. Under the legislation as it is now, hate crimes are just a mere way to control people, punishing them for their thoughts instead of their actions. Hate crimes are no more special than crimes committed out of love, fear, or indifference; because to say they are is to give one emotion more power than all others. Until we brainwash everyone and make them think alike, we cannot control people by mere laws.

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