Religion and Hate Crimes Essay

The civil rights movement lays down the foundation of what most of us take for granted. In situations where racism, discrimination and sexual orientation was the justification of why one would be denied employment, a seat on the bus, or the right to vote, this movement was created to benefit all American people and has truly proven itself to be effective.

The civil rights movement’s goal was to drastically alter the social and political handling of African Americans in America. To end Jim crow laws (preventing blacks from voting), to end segregation, end inequality to schooling, etc. They also aimed to change the American attitude towards blacks. This was no easy feat.

On June 7, 1998, 49-year-old James Byrd Jr. of Texas accepted a ride from three white men, who then beat him severely, urinated on him, chained him by his ankles to the back of their pick-up truck, dragged him for three miles into the countryside, and dumped his corpse in front of an African-American cemetery (Graczyk). A little over a year later, a jury sentenced ring leader John King to death by lethal injection (“Man Executed for Dragging Death of James Byrd”). While this particular case may give the appearance that perpetrators of hate crimes receive appropriate punishment, almost a decade later, one particular case demonstrates the inequity in the application of hate crime punishments: In 2007, Sean Kennedy of Charleston, South

The civil rights movement was a movement that was committed to nonviolence and racial integration. There were civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X who challenged these commitments. Although there were laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, there was still de facto discrimination. De facto discrimination is discrimination in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. Legal equality was not enough for African Americans, especially because de facto discrimination was rising instead of declining. To a certain extent the civil rights movement did make progress in ending de facto discrimination, but they didn’t completely get rid of it. It was only a start

As hate crimes have risen in number during the past five years; many state governments have attempted to prevent such crimes by passing laws called bias laws. These laws make a crime that is motivated by hatred based on the victim’s race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation a more serious crime than such an act would ordinarily be. Many people believe that these laws violate the criminal’s freedom of speech. Many hate group members say that freedom of speech is the right to say or write or publish one’s thoughts, or to express one’s self, they also say that this right is guaranteed to all Americans. But people and organizations who are against these hate groups ask themselves if the first amendment include and protect all form of expression, even those that ugly or hurtful like the burning crosses. The Supreme Court Justices have decided that some kinds of speech are not protected by the Constitution,

The Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote.

The African American civil rights movement was a long journey for African American nationwide. The success involved many people, hardships and time in order to advance the African American community in America. The purpose of the movement was to achieve their rights, cease discrimination, and racial segregation.

Religion and Racism Racism is prejudice against people of another race or ethnic group. Prejudice means pre-judging: making up your mind about someone or something when you have not considered the facts or the evidence. Racism has been around for a very long time, one of the first times that it happened on a major scale was when the Jews moved to Egypt, but were put into slavery because the Egyptians thought of them as inferior because their skin colour and religious beliefs. People are, or can be racist due to three main points, the first is that they were brought up by parents who were racist, and they automatically adopted the views of them because that was all they knew as right.

On the heels of the recently concluded presidential election our nation has seen a staggering increase in hate crimes. The re emergence of oppressive practices, emboldened violence, and blatant bias against segments of the population threatens the fundamental constitutional premise that guarantees freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

I find this issue very important since I have always criticized all types of religions for being significantly intolerant with each other. However, as Rees states in the article “According to data from the Virginia State Police, anti-Semitic acts are the most common hate crimes motivated by religion in the commonwealth.” Which makes the situation even more disturbing because it makes me ask the following question: Why does it have, the Jewish community, that people hate so much that makes them do these threats in schools? These types of situations make me realize that we, as human beings, are having less tolerance with each other way of thinking in general.

Around after the Holocaust times, Jews in the United States are annually subject to the most hate crimes of any religious group. Jews were the target of 51 percent of racist attacks in France in 2014, even as they made up less than 1 percent of that country’s population.

Imagine this happening to all of the youth today realizing that they can be so fragile because they do something new. And you can see that everywhere people with new looks and styles seem to receive the different comments from other people, and in the end, they accept it. When you wear any religious objects on you people just have those stereotypes running through their head assuming that the person is what their parent tell them and it been drilled into their head. People don’t understand the feeling until it happens to them until it’s too much and they just crack. The hate against religions shouldn’t even exist because the only thing it does is bring down people’s spirits, thinking that “This is what people say about us?”. It just like history

Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never” (32). Many people believe that religious persecution/discrimination came to a halt after World War II, but it continues up to today. Discrimination of people because of their religious choices is still very common. A Jewish man named Issac Weiss was discriminated by other extremely religious Jews in his community, simply because he did not strictly adhere to the laws of the Orthodox Jews in his community. Religious persecution, unfortunately, has also increased in the past few years. According to a recent study, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, and other countries in the Middle East have very high and strict limitations on religious freedom. “There are all sorts of violent persecutions taking place today, and I would probably rate the massacre of Shiite Muslims in Pakistan and Iraq, along with the massacre of everyday Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria, at least as high as persecution of Christians in various places” (Barlow). Ethnic and race persecution is also a very serious problem in many countries. In the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, it states that we have the right to practice any religion or to not practice any religion at all. We often take advantage of this amendment. A recent study showed that by the year 2012, religious persecution and

Walking down Dyckman street, a middle-aged man approached my friend and I as we ventured to Pied Piper Children’s Theatre for rehearsal. Looking up at him, I saw him grin and pull at the sides of his eyes so that they were mere slits. “Chink! Chink! Chinito, Chinito!” he said with a wide grin. Watching him, I froze, I didn’t know how to react to a situation like that. I had never faced a situation like that in my life. As we walked past him, my friend and I both erupted into laughter, taken aback by what we had just experienced. We proceeded to walk unfazed the man’s mockery, for all we knew, he was just some crazy old man. Though the words that came out of his mouth had virtually no impact on me in the moment, they introduced me to a concept that I had never known before: racism. This hate speech was not effective in hurting me, but in opening my eyes to prejudice. Yet, if he had acted physically, it would be a different story. To be called a name is different than being physically threatened because of that name. Thus, while hate speech is bad, hate crimes are exponentially worse, and should be treated as such.

Nasser Kurdy was stabbed in the neck from behind with a knife. The police report this is a hate crime. Kurdy was a muslim that helped treat people after the Manchester attack. Muslims are experiencing more and more hate crime in the UK. This is effecting the United states. The United States has had a lot of hate crime towards everything from sexuality to race and religion beliefs. If this keeps going on in the Uk or anywhere in the world for that matter then a lot of people will be turning on each other. There will be more riots and protest.