http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147490037According to Philadelphia's CBS affiliate, up to 26 Asian students at South Philadelphia High School were targeted this week for beatings by both black and white students because of their race, and many of the victims required medical assistance. The good news is that the ten perpetrators will face disciplinary and possible criminal charges.
Conspicuously absent from this story, however, is any use of the phrase "hate crime." The phrase doesn't even rate a mention. In fact, the word "racism" is utterly absent from the account.
This seems to fit a meme we've often observed, that the old media seems to believe that it is impossible for politically favored ethnic groups to be guilty of racism themselves. Whites are presumptively racist, while any suggestion that blacks themselves could be guilty of hate is met with the knee-jerk charge that the accuser is a presumptive racist for saying such things.
This incident shows the silliness and the injustice of "hate crimes" laws. If the same criminal activity had been carried out by whites on blacks, the NAACP, the Rev. Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would already be in full howl, press conferences would be held, bullhorns brandished, and all we' be hearing about is how racist America is, our sad legacy of slavery and how much we need special punishments for race-based crimes to purge the soul of the nation.
But acts of physical violence such as those described in this story merit the full penalty of the law, regardless of the skin color of either assailant or victim. Unfortunately, these victims will apparently get less protection under the law because some of their attackers belong to the race favored by politicians and the grievance industry for special protections and dispensations. Only if this episode is bumped up into the category of a "hate crime" will they get all the protection which is supposed to be afforded them in American jurisprudence.
Evidently, we are all equal before the law, but some are more equal than others, and that special status is based on race and not on conduct.
The bulk of Americans are deeply sorry about our national sin of slavery, and have long been ready to move past the issue of race and judge people based on "the content of their character" rather than "the color of their skin," just as brother Martin urged us to. It is the grievance industry that is keeping racism alive in America, largely by practicing it themselves. The reverends Sharpton and Jackson make their living bleating about institutional racism, and so they cannot afford to let America move forward. They are stuck in the 1850s, while the rest of us are looking forward to 2010.
Now it's possible that this crime spree will be upgraded to the category of a "hate crime." But crime is crime, physical violence is physical violence, and every crime is in fact a hate crime. Let's dump the whole concept and go back to something simpler and more just: equal punishment for equal crime, regardless of the skin color of either perpetrator or victim. That's the American way.
Topic: Not a Hate Crime If the Victims Aren't Black (Read 1753 times)