Hyorim Kim
10 May 2010
FD5/Final Exam


Hate crimes occur in human right barren zone.


When I was in my high school, I have watched a movie called “A time to kill” in my citizenship class. The movie was about a lawsuit related to racism between Caucasians and African-Americans. In Canton, Mississippi, one day an innocent African-American girl is viciously raped and killed by two white men. Although the two white men are brutal criminals, the local court is not likely to impose heavy penalty on the two guys because the white superiority took firm root in Canton. During the movie, KKK interrupted and intimidated the layer who is supporting killed girl. This was my first memory that I faced racial discrimination and hate crime. Most of hate crimes related to racial discrimination, homosexuality, and religion occurs when minorities’ human right is not respected by others. Every human being has a right to be happy and respected by others. [THESIS] Our society should provide security for minority groups by educating people and establishing standardized hate crime laws and institution.[THESIS]


America is the country that various ethnic groups coexist each other. Each ethnic group has distinctive values, religions, cultures from other group. Although such varieties have been a great advantage in America, there are many conflicts and tensions between different ethnic groups and it has been a serious social issue such as racial discrimination. In November 2006, Michael Richard, a comedian at a famous L.A. comedy club, made prejudiced remarks at his show. Richard humiliated one of African-American audiences by calling him “nigger” and making fun of African American. Richard yelled at the audience, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass." While watching Richard’s show, I felt really uncomfortable and confused. I remember that all audiences were in chaos and finally left the show. Richard’s senseless remarks hurt African-Americans seriously and it is defiantly hate crime. I could not imagine that such ugly incident could occur, until I moved to Hawaii.


I came from Korea that is racially homogeneous nation and I barely had a chance to think about racial discriminations. However, living a foreign country gave me a notion that I could be the victim of hate crime. In the last summer vacation, I visited New York to see one of my friends. I went to a house party with my friend because she wanted to introduce her friends. One of her Caucasian friends asked me “why do you eat dog meat? It is an ignorant practice these days. ” she reputed Korean as barbarian. I was so embarrassed and everybody was focusing on my answer. Even though, I told them I do not eat dog meat and few old people eat dog meat, people in the party already looked at me oddly. I got a big hurt in my heart from that incident. When I think that moment, I am still embarrassed and angry. The Caucasian girl that I met in the party has a strong prejudice toward Korean and could not realize that her remarks could be considered as hate crime.


According to FBI annual official reports, in 2004, there were about 7,500 hate crimes, including violent hate crimes such as murder or assault. However, Heidi Beirich, spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said about the actual rate of hate crimes that “there’s really more like 50,000 hate crimes out there each year.” That is because some states do not have the recognition of hate crimes or have weak hate crime laws. Moreover, the rate of hate crime has been increasing since 1994. I believe that the primary solution of hate crimes are publishing standardized hate crime laws and establishing a specialized institution. Having the same standardized hate crime laws in America will give people to have the same awareness of hate crimes in everywhere. In addition, we will be able to instruct people through public so that hate crimes will be decreased. Hate crime education is especially important two groups, young generations and adults who already have bias or prejudice toward certain group. Providing hate crime education in schools will allow students to have right ideas of the crime and the rate of hate crimes will decrease in the future. Using media, such as TV, radio, and newspaper, we can instruct adults to be aware at hate crimes.


The specialized institution which I mentioned in my primary solution, the function of institution should be not only arresting and punishing criminals but also providing programs for the criminals. If the government only gives a harsh fine or punishment to a people who committed hate crime toward certain group of people, such as transgender, the criminal could have more ill feeling than before. We should provide hate crime criminals a chance to understand their prejudiced group by social programs. For instance, if a hate crime criminal who has a hatred against transgender, to break the prejudice, the program provide chance to meet a transgender and share personal feelings emotionally. The consultant who helps hate crime criminal must be professionally trained for such purpose. Therefore, we can prevent reoccurrence from former offenders.


In America, the rate of hate crimes has been increasing every year. America is the county that various ethnic groups live together. We cannot say which race or whose value is superior because every human being in the world has right to pursuit of happiness, it is civil right. Hate crimes are closely related to human right. People who committed hate crimes or keep prejudices in their mind toward a group of people are not respecting others civil right. To prevent victims of hate crimes, America should have standardized hate crime laws so that we can uniformly educate people to have right ideas of hate crimes. In addition, the government should establish a hate crime institution. The institution must have two functions that one is detecting and punishing criminals to protect victims and the other is providing retraining program to criminals so that they can have chance to break their prejudices. If we are living a society that ignores a certain group of people and make them as second-class citizen, there would be the human right barren zone.


Works Cited

“‘Kramer’s’ Racist Tirade — Caught on Tape.” TMZ.com. 20 Nov. 2006. 07 Dec. 2006
[http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/20/kramers-racist-tirade-caught-on-tape]


Anderson, Curt. “FBI Reports More Than 7,400 Hate Crimes.” Charlotte.com 22 Nov. 2004. 9 Dec. 2004 [http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/10246350.htm]