Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 19 August 1999 — Page 2

The Muncie Times, August 19, 1999, page 2

EDITORIAL Effective hate crimes legislation overdue

Over the next 50 years, according to demographers and census figures, the United States will cease to be a country where people of European descent will still be the majority. Instead today’s minorities will become the country’s majority, signaling a sea of change in the racial and ethnic makeup of these United States of America. That will turn this country into a true melting pot. Yet nothing much has been done to change this country from its Eurocentric outlook. Nothing much has been done to address problems that beset minorities daily. While the country is relentlessly being transformed into a society where no single ethnic or racial group will be dominant, hate crimes seem to be increasing. Reports persist of African Americans being subjected to nooses in the workplace—a crude reminder of the time when

racists freely and with impunity used to lynch black Americans. Others target Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans or other people of color. Occasionally these hate mongers also become antiSemitic and unleash their venom against Arabs and Jews. This country can never be what it should be, when its people spend so much time and energy hating those who happen to belong to nonwhite races or when nonwhites spend time worry ing about the race baiters. President Clinton was on the right track when he launched his race initiative, which was supposed to engage Americans in conversations on racial matters. However, his efforts and plans were ridiculed by those who live in a make-believe world where they want to pretend there are no racial problems.

That is sad, because the problems are there. When people are deliberately shop because they are black, Hispanic, Asians, Native Americans, Jews or gays, something is terribly wrong in this country. When white supremacists create websites where they spew hate, something is wrong. When the U. S. Congress refuses to pass laws that would target the perpetrators of hate crimes, something is wrong. Hate crimes are increasing in this country. Yet nothing seems to be done about them. Many states, but not Indiana, have stiffened hate crimes laws. President Clinton has called for tougher federal hate crimes legislation. So have U. S. Attorney General Janet Reno, civil and human rights groups and many Democrats in the U. S. Senate and U. S. House of Representatives. Republican leaders in the

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Senate and House, however, have been slow to act. Events over the past two years, culminating in the shootings of children and a postal worker in Los Angeles by a suspect affiliated with a white supremacist group have once again bloodily underscored the need for tough hate crimes legislation and the need for relentless prosecution of those responsible for these heinous ciimes. Law-abiding citizens and residents should not have to be subjected to the venom from racist morons who sometimes use religion or free speech to spout their hate. It is time for the rest of rational society to stand up and loudly and clearly make it uncompromisingly obvious that we are not going to let these racist morons destroy what this country stands for. If racist crimes continue unpunished, we could well be

laying the groundwork for a future racial conflagration. With guns so readily available and so many people so ready to use them, what’s to prevent nonwhite Americans from arming themselves and shooting back against their tormentors? The consequences are too dastardly to contemplate. Yet that is one possible scenario. Another danger is that those young people who have been inured to violence, because they have experienced so much of it, could one day—when today’s minority groups become tomorrow’s majority—decide it is payback time against the burgeoning racist groups. Again, the consequences could be dastardly. Passing a hate crimes bill with teeth would save us and the country from such potential disasters.

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