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A WOMAN who was sexually abused, beaten and forced to eat rat and dog faeces while being held captive in a West Virginian home for at least a week may be the victim of a hate crime.
Six people arrested including a mother and son, and a mother and daughter, are white. The victim, a 23-year-old woman, is black.
The FBI plans to investigate whether racism played a part after one of the suspects, female Frankie Brewster, allegedly cut the victim's ankle with a knife while telling her she was a "nigger", USA Today reported.
We can only hope and wish that the allegations are untrue. But some shit you just can't make up. And hoping and wishing doesn't make these problems go away.
I can't help but think about how race relations have generally deteriorated over my short lifetime, which started at the top of the Reagan era. I feel like things have gotten especially worse in the past few years. And even in my anger, my mind still tries to understand why.
Maybe it's that racial hostility thrives where there is poverty. I can't help but note that this took place in a Coal Mining town with high levels of unemployment. When people are suffering, they look for scapegoats.
Or maybe it's the deterioration of the dialog in this country. After September 11th, it became okay in some circles to openly hate brown and Muslim people (often equating the two groups as one and the same.) After that, it seemed like everyone became a lot more belligerent. Other forms of hate followed. Hate is often a self-fulfilling prophecy -- you hate someone, they withdraw from you, and they become easier to hate. It's hard to predict just how far the hate will go.
But I honestly don't know why this happened. I don't know that this is part of a trend. I have no data on hand, and I'm too angry to seek it out, at least at the moment. Maybe things have actually gotten better, in spite of incidents like this. I honestly don't know. But regardless, the truth is we need to be doing a lot more to affect the root causes of racism, and a lot less denial.
Edit: thanks for the recommend, folks. I'll get down into the trenches on this important issue. But let me make a blanket statement about the importance of hate crime legislation...
"Hate Crime" is probably a misnomer. Yes, all crimes involve some kind of hatred or negativity. However, the distinction between this crime and others is important. This kind of crime is closer to terrorism than murder. Hate crimes are not just motivated by hatred. They are motivated by hatred against an entire group. But that's not all. Most of all, hate crimes are motivated by message: the desire to re-shape opinion and society. In many ways, they welcome the arrest and the attention that follows. Interracial violence is one thing. It is another thing to commit a crime with the specific goal of promoting and justifying further interracial violence. They want others to follow in their footsteps. That "movement" proposes a greater danger than a mere murderer. And that's why those assholes deserve their own special distinction, in my opinion.
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