Hate Crime In America

Hate Crimes in America are a subject that simply do not receive enough attention.

In dealing with hate crimes, we as a country have a long way to go.
It seems to be very difficult for many people to understand the connection between racism and hate crimes. It also seems to be difficult for many people to accept that these things do occur every day.

I am constantly amazed at the amount of people I hear from every day that are of the beliefe that violence against American Indians is a thing of the past. That these things have been rectified and no longer happen.

I hear things like, "The Indians were treated badly".

I am not exactly sure that I would consider being raped. murdered and tortured as being treated "badly".

Part of the misconception springs from the misinformation that American Indians were the perpetrators of horrific crimes against immigrants.

No doubt that all American Indian Nations did their share of retribution.

The question is where did and does the fault lie?

Tribes were at home on their own land. Foreigners came from another land and started taking their land and killing their people. Today we would justify the actions of the Indian Nations as 'self defense".

Now someone will say, "That was in the past, let bygones be bygones".

Not so fast. It is still happening today. Almost every Indian Nation are fighting battles to stop either the Federal Government or Large Corporations from attempting to steal land that holds resources that attract the greed of others.

You still are not a believer?

This is from the Southern poverty Law Center.

The Southern Poverty Law Center

Indian Blood

From the beginning, white Americans have brutalized American Indians. Half a millennium later, the hate goes on.

The study also found that "American Indians are more likely than people of other races to experience violence at the hands of someone of a different race," with 70% of reported violent attacks perpetrated by non-Indians.

Even to seasoned crime statisticians, the results were startling. "We now know that American Indians experience a much greater exposure to violence than other race groups," said co-author Lawrence A. Greenfeld. "The common wisdom was that blacks experience the highest exposure to violence."

But the results didn't come as a surprise to Navajo leaders, who have long referred to Farmington as the "Selma, Ala., of the Southwest."

"Just as some areas of the South remain hotbeds of racism because of the history of slavery and discrimination, the same can be said of areas where there are large Indian populations," said Raymond Foxworth, a scholarship coordinator for the American Indian College Fund who grew up on the Navajo reservation. "The historical treatment of Indians does indeed have contemporary significance. If we are willing to admit this about other groups, why can't the same be said with Indians?"

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2006/winter/indian-blood

You see, racism is still alive in America today. The bad part is this, if it can happen to any race of people, it can also happen to any other.