Race Relations: Dare to Challenge Your Stereotypes and Trace Your Genetic History

"Land of the free and home of the brave." This is America, a supposed "melting pot" of various races, ethnicities, religions, disabilities, and sexual orientations. However, it is not as harmonious as what it should be and what is symbolic in our national flag. According to a 2004 summary of hate crime statistics, over 9,000 people were victims of different types of hate crimes (www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004885.html). These crimes aren't occurrences of decades long past, they are very recent and very real.

The targeted victims of physical and sexual assault and even murder are all different races, religions, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and disabilities. Human beings are being denied everyone's basic right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness because of who they are and choose to be. Why that is when we all should be allowed to live in freedom under the Constitution is incomprehensible.

Left in wake of this violence are families and friends, leaving a stain on the nation and it's basic beliefs on which this country was allegedly founded. Every adult knows those rights, children are thought them in school, and there are some penalties in place for violations, but are the few and little penalties they have for committing acts of hate enough? Can one really put an appropriate penalty on harassing, harming or killing someone because they are different or vary from what someone's idea of right is? Another problem is the fact that slurs and epitaphs are going unpunished from school age children to adults in workplaces and in the public eye.

By definition, a hate crime is (dictionary.reference.com/) "a crime, usually violent motivated by prejudice or intolerance toward a member of a gender, racial, religious, or social group. also called bias crime." The perpetrators of these acts launch assaults against not only individuals but also communities in efforts to undermine unity and peace.

According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, (www.theiacp.org/documents/index.cfm) hate crimes are usually more extreme, the victims of these crimes suffer psychological trauma, their families also feel helpless, the assault itself causes other community members who feel similarities to often feel victimized, the crimes create a domino effect of retaliation, and both hate crimes and hate incidences cause more turbulence.

Hate incidences differ in definition, because it is antagonistic speech or behavior which is motivated by bias against another's race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. Unfortunately, this behavior is not illegal and only when violence against an individual or group is encouraged is it illegal. A hate incidences have the same effects on the victim as the crimes yet, they still go unpunished and are rarely even recognized as an infringement upon the rights of the victims.

For example, when I was in school Brookport Elementary even up to Massac County High School in southern Illinois, it was not uncommon for someone to call African Americans racial slurs or even to make threats against someone for sexual orientation without recognition by adults let alone any type of punishment. I recall that on our graduation trip a boy, whose name I won't give the satisfaction of mentioning, called all of the black students on the bus discriminatory names after attempting to "freeze out" the people he didn't like who were on the trip.

When students objected to his behavior, the teacher in charge, who was a special ed teacher mind you, told them to "shut the hell up and sit down." Never did he scorn the student making racial remarks, and he even tried to hug one of the students he was rude to afterward. I remember the look on most of the graduates faces, their fun marred by idiocy, and a teacher whom many had grown to trust and respect upholding that behavior. When the Vice Principle was told, now the High School principle, he did nothing. Situations like these are what lead to many crimes of retaliation and unrest. This, however, is the whole point of why biased individuals or groups commit these acts. If they can make someone who is actually a victim commit a crime in turn for another, they can attempt to confirm stereotypes of those whom they have trespassed against.

There are limitless amounts of hate groups throughout the world and in any form they use terrorism to validate their bias toward others. A quick search of hate groups on the internet will yield tons of websites aimed at the soul purpose of eradication of anyone seemingly different than their group. Children on up to adults are sought for recruitment into these supremacist associations. With technological advancement, they have a further reach and more resources to corrupt and spread their hate and falsities. You most likely have seen them on the street or at work, but did not know who they were. These recruiters are trained in who and what to look for in someone so as to fuel the hate within them and incite them into taking part in violent activities.

Literature is present for disbursing on street corners, kits are mailed all in order to justify, music is produced, and movies are made in support of their one world of only one type of people dream. Often the same hate mongers who are involved in this behavior are divided into three types (www.rickross.com/reference/hate_groups/hategroups355.html). People who commit hate crimes often have issues within themselves and therefor project them onto another subject, according to The seven-stage hate model: The psychopathology of hate groups by John R. Schafer and Joe Navarro, www.rickross.com/reference/hate_groups/hategroups355.html.

You may have seen or heard several urban legends about certain racial groups or sexual orientations launched as a means to solidify reasons for their hatred. You can find examples of such created stories at www.snopes.com/racial/racial.asp. I can't tell you how many times I've received emails about a gay man who supposedly rapes and kills a young boy and the text encourages you to join their group or to hate gay people. This is another urban legend recirculating it's way around the internet in a different form, I have also gotten emails stating that it was black people or Asians.

I personally, have never met any gay people who were "inherently evil" as the rumor goes. I have found that people are as different as night and day, and it has nothing to do with their sexual orientation, color, religion, or disability. People spend time, money, and energy on spreading rumors and hating others when they could simply live their own lives in the pursuit of happiness instead of committing crimes or biased incidences against others in order to infringe upon them.

Hating others for who they are or choose to be is wrong and no amount of justification, hate mail, violence, or disrespect will prove that it is right. Projecting bias onto others only shows that the person projecting it has issues, and is looking to use their "seek and destroy" method to use against someone displaying characteristics he/she does not wish to admit they see within themselves. Or maybe it is because the intended victim does not have the self-esteem issues they have although the subject is supposedly "inferior because ... insert hate justification here..." So with respect to all genders, races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and disabilities, I am stating that a challenge is in place for anyone who believes their bias or prejudice is fair and right. I demand them to do these things in order to learn more about others around them and about themselves.

There is nothing to lose if you truly think that you are correct about your beliefs and proving them should only solidify your bias. Get to know lots of people whom you have hate toward online and see if they prove your assumptions of that group. Learn more about your family and their lives, and it may expose to you different types of people within one family. Lastly, take a DNA test which tracks your paternal or maternal ancestry which can all be done by ordering online www.dnaancestryproject.com/ydna_intro_howto.php. Learn your background and the facts of what you yourself consist of, and you may find that the very person you hate is a part of you.