How Does Race Affect Hate Crime?

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Hate crime is defined as an illegal act against a person, institution, or property that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s biased beliefs against individuals because of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and gender. The term hate crime became part of the American lexicon in 1985 when it was coined by United States Representatives John Conyers and Mario Biaggi. Although the term hate crime and societal interest in it are relatively recent developments, hate crime has deep historical roots. Let's focus in race originated hate crimes because they are the most committed and talked about, yet the least done about.

In 2016 alone 4,229 race-oriented hate crimes were committed. That’s …show more content…

With 11 reports a day it's kind of hard to miss. Not to mention the cases that go viral. It’s a big topic. Especially since the trump election and presidency.

Since Donald Trump won the Presidential election, there has been a dramatic uptick in incidents of racist and xenophobic harassment across the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported that there were 437 incidents of intimidation between the election, on November 8th, and November 14th, targeting blacks and other people of color and ethnicities. One woman in Colorado told the S.P.L.C. that her twelve-year-old daughter was approached by a boy who said, “Now that Trump is President, I’m going to shoot you and all the blacks I can find.” At a school in Washington State, students chanted “build a wall” in a cafeteria. (Alexis 1). In the time of his presidency, Trump has repeatedly been asked to condemn white-nationalist supporters, such as David Duke, and the violence inspired by his campaign, and his responses have been notably halfhearted. On Sunday, in an interview on “60 Minutes,” he said that he had not heard about much racial abuse since the election, and added, “If it helps, I will say this … stop it.” (CNN Politics 1). That same day, he named Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart, the right-wing news site with strong connections to white nationalism, as his senior counselor and chief strategist. (Alexis

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