Arvind Mohanram
13th December 2010
FD5-Final Examination
Hate crime is rampant in this country. The nature and origin can be due to color, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, religion and background. Hate crimes incidents springs from poverty mentality. Fear, insecurity and frustration are the primary cause of hate crimes. [Thesis] Educating the youth and public is the key to overcoming these negative attitudes and the first step towards reducing hate crimes [Thesis]
The US has been welcoming people with open arms from all over the world; there has been a recent increase in crimes committed against immigrants. While the country boasts of safety in terms of quickness of response and tracking criminals with fancy gadgets, life has been tough and unsafe for immigrants in the US following terrorist attack at World Trade Center. International students, the majority from India and China, come to the US Universities seeking quality education that give them a good future and career. Even after nine years after 9/11 students from Asian countries are at risk just because they have a different accent and skin color. Thanks to the Bush administration,any Muslim entering the country is a terrorist. Any Indian with turbine and beard is Osama.
Take the case of Nabeel Siddiqui, 24, a computer science major who graduated from New Jersey Institute of Technology this summer, suffered brutal neurological injuries and trauma when three juveniles attacked him with a baseball bat on his head at Haxtun Avenue in Orange, NJ, as he got out of his car to deliver a pizza (Melwani). The young man never awoke from the coma; the reason behind the attack is not entirely clear, but the only clue the cops could find was that he was a Muslim from Pakistan. This is just one of the many incidents and it is appalling to see what International students go through in this country. I could relate pretty well to case of harassment when I first arrived to the US. The immigration officials at port of entry were at San Francisco and my initial impression was not very good. They were not very friendly and although I had all my documents laid out, they were giving me a hard time. They treated me as if I was a potential criminal in disguise.
In another incident, the San Francisco Bay area, a 83-year-old Huan Chen was on his way to visit his elderly wife at nursing home, was beaten so severely, that he died from his wounds two months later. The perpetrators ran away from Chen's attack laughing. The attackers were African-American youth. Apparently, it has been found that the two biggest motivators for attacks, according to the report, were race (142 incidents) and sexual orientation (119 incidents). Other biases, in decreasing order, included religion, national origin, political ideology and gender identity (Chansanchai).
In all the cases the attackers could be youth and juvenile living next door. In a recent study conducted by Dr. Edward Dunbar, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, out of 1,459 hate crimes committed in the Los Angeles area in the period 1994 to 1995, fewer than 5% of the offenders were members of organized hate groups (Hate-Crime Today). So, the solution appears to be education and awareness at grass root levels – the schools. One such initiative could be to setup an anti-discriminatory body. The antidiscrimination officials must have access to address hate crimes through monitoring, reporting, and assistance to victims The primary mission of this body would be to spread awareness by working with nonprofit and community foundation towards educating the schools and communities groups about hate and bias crimes. Such activities will also assist in reducing the panic and fear of the youth and aid in creating environment that are open to diversity and sustainable community living. For e.g. the Students Civil Rights project was founded by Governor's Task Force in the state of Massachusetts in 1998.The aim of this project is to conducts training classes for teachers and police regarding awareness program and designing school curriculum for hate crime prevention. As the result of the success of these steps, many schools have started the violence prevention program and conducting diversity workshops in their schools. (Strategy)
However, the success in one state may not work at any other states. In addition, not all schools would be open to address this issue because there may not any such incidents occurring in their geographic location. The schools can also argue that the program may not work because there is it is difficult to monitor the activity of the students outside the school. Also, the incident of abuse and violence by the youth can just be a symptom of deeper issue totally unrelated to hate crimes.
Although these uncertainties exist, there is a dire need to address this issue because of the alarming rise in incidents against discrimination. The hate crime education programs at school level will play an important role in changing the attitude of the younger generation and make this country a safe and secure place to live.
Works Cited
Chansanchai, Athima. “Bias Crimes Found in All Areas of City.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 4 May 2006. 5 May 2006 [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/268997_bias04.html?source=mypi].
“Hate Crimes Today: An Age-Old Foe in Modern Dress.” APA Online 1998. 9 Dec. 2004 [http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/hate/#top].
Markham, Lauren. “Hate Crimes Against Asian-Americans in San Francisco”. [http://immigration.change.org/blog/view/hate_crimes_against_asian-americans_in_san_francisco].
Melwani, Lavina. “Hate Crimes Against Indians, South Asians, Arabs and Muslims are the collateral damage of 9/11.” [http://www.littleindia.com/news/148/ARTICLE/1597/2003-11-05.html].
“Strategy: Educating the Public About Hate Crimes” [http://www.ncpc.org/topics/hate-crime/strategies/strategy-educating-the-public-about-hate-crimes ].
