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This is my rant after an incident of racist graffiti in my neighborhood (link to incident info).:
Let’s Rid Our Community, County, Country, & World of Racism & Hate Crimes
Is a racial slur painted in a public place considered a hate crime?
I ask myself how would I feel if a saw a sign near my house spray painted with the words “fu… whitey” or “… honky”(there’s a selection of slurs here). I don’t know of any incidents when this has happened, of course, and I hardly ever hear any of the slurs on the page I linked to ( & I wouldn't want to).
I did some research about racial graffiti and what I found is on another page linked at the bottom of this one. There's a list of resources at the bottom of that page for dealing with these issues if you have similar concerns.
Vandalism used to be a punishable crime, but apparently not any more. Hate messages apparently aren’t either. Have we gotten so complacent that it doesn’t matter? Is there nothing we can do any way so why care?
What does matter? When will we act?
Do we have to wait until someone burns down a whole community of houses as did happen in Charles County just last year (2004 – link to news story )? Or does that not count as a racism hate crime since there was no one living there at the time – just one family, I think, and no one was hurt and there were other motivations involved? Legally it doesn’t count, but are legal definitions the only ones that matter? It was a reaction to feelings of hate and there was reason to suspect some due to racism – admitted by at least one of those prosecuted. Should the other factors just let us say that no one will ever damage my personal property or hurt me due to racism since this case didn’t prove that it was due to racism? It certainly does show that there are people who do outrageous things do to hate.
Do we just let our local government handle it? We pay our taxes, so it’s their concern? Is just cleaning it up and not even telling anyone about it a good response by our government?
What if it’s a sign of a possible hate group like skin-heads?
They’re not attacking me personally, so does that mean I shouldn’t be concerned?
"I’m busy." "What can you do?" "It’s just kids." "I didn’t even know it was there." "We’ll see what the county does." Silence. These are responses I’ve heard.
Isn’t everyone taught to "love thy neighbor"? If I wasn’t taught in my church that hate is wrong and that anti-racism is the correct response (link to church’s anti-racism program), I probably wouldn’t care either. I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it. It wasn’t directed at me. It wasn’t exactly on my street. I wouldn’t have even seen it if someone didn’t tell me about it since it’s not in an area I usually go. I wonder how long it would have stayed there if I had not said or done anything.
We don’t discuss racism, because it usually leads to racism. It reminds me of the response to teen pregnancy – if we don’t talk about it, they won’t do it. We can call our politicians and others in the public light "racist", but can we be responsible to the racism that exists in our neighborhoods and our every day society? Or will it just go away if we ignore it?
It hasn’t gone away and it doesn’t look like it is going away. Yes, you can say we’ve come a long way, but where are we going? Are we safe from racial hate in our bedroom communities?
If it’s primarily an institutional problem, then those institutions can deal with it. I’m not racist. I’m not engaging in a hate crime. I don’t condone it. So I’ll just mind my own business. Are these our responses?
There’s a saying that "If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem." To me that means problems of our society, in our neighborhood or a nearby area, our county or even our country. Is racism not a problem? How can I be part of the solution? Here’s what people who’ve studied this problem say.:
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