This book covers diversity concepts in a way that is easy for readers to understand & relate to by using examples from pop culture, including TV shows, lyrics, movies, & poetry.
Hate Crimes
Hate crimes are not a new phenomenon. Human history has recorded many incidents that have been linked with hatred and bigotry for many decades. Focusing on the United States, hate crimes originated from the early history of our nation.
Let’s begin with defining “hate” and “crime” first. Hate, according to most dictionaries is defined as: intense dislike and animosity, or: to feel animosity or hostility toward; then we have related words such as hateful, hatred and so forth. Crime, on the other hand, is defined as: an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it and for which punishment is imposed upon conviction, or unlawful activity, an unjust, senseless, or disgraceful act or condition. With these simple definitions we can have a better understanding of “hate-crime” that is, an unlawful act that is committed based on intensive animosity. This is a criminal act that is predominantly based on “differences,” or diversification which is related to color, race, gender, nation of origin, culture, religion, language, physical disabilities, sexual orientation, ideology, and occupation to name a few.
Hate crimes have been observed throughout the history of mankind every where in the world. In our history of modern time, hate crimes in the United States stem from slavery, racial injustice, and prejudice against blacks in the era of the civil rights movement, and continued by spreading into the society where it was permeated by harming the uniqueness of diverse people. In recent years, hate crimes have been particularly synonymous with the gay and lesbian population. Bigotry against homosexual citizens has caused many shameful crimes around the country.
In 1998, Mathew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay college student was tied to a fence pole, beaten, and left to die in the middle of a field in a Wyoming farmland. He died five days later. For further information on Mathew Shepard you may refer to: (http://www.matthewshepard.org/) and
(http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Stonewall/2878/). The case of Mathew Shepard will not ever be forgotten. In November 26, 2004, an investigation by ABC’s 20/20 put forth the theory that Mathew Shepard’s murder was not a hate crime, but a drug-related robbery gone wrong. However, this theory has not been validated or corroborated at the time of this printing, so we shall continue to consider this an example of heinous hate crime for the time being.
WHAT MATTERS (A song written about Matthew Shepard after his horrible death.)
by Randi Driscoll
You were the brightest angel heaven had ever seen
you walked in with a story to tell and ten thousand tongues to scream and you said
doesn’t your heart beat the same as mine
haven’t I told you a thousand times
isn’t the air in my lungs the same air you breathe
so who cares whose arms I’m all wrapped up in
who cares whoes eyes I see myself in
who cares who I dream of
who cares who I love.
Heaven help me for I am lost
what a price my love did cost
but here I am standing strong and I am free
and didn’t we share the same sunrise and sleep in the same moonlight
isn’t the blood in my veins the same blood you bleed, so…
when I die and they lay my body down
the peace that I will find is the peace that brings you all around
doesn’t my mother cry like everyone
my father grieve for his lonely son
isn’t my rainbow a little brighter because…
so who cares whose arms I’m all wrapped up in
who cares whose eyes I see myself in
who cares who I dream of
no it doesn’t matter who I dream of
’cause in the end it only matters that I was loved and am loved…love has no face.
©1999 Randi Driscoll/Swim Swam Swum Songs/BMI
Lyrics reprinted with permission of the artist.
Copyright 2008 Dr. Leo Parvis. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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