In fight against hate, I won’t back down
Hate is natural, inevitable and acceptable.
That’s what you’re going to read in the comments section at the end of this piece. I know because those are the comments that are written in response to every editorial that bemoans the increase in hate and prejudice in our country and our world. I know because I read them all.
But I’m going to make my case anyway, make my case that, despite the fact that hate, prejudice and bigotry are on the rise, we must not feel defeated, and instead must find the courage and energy to rise up against hatred every chance we get.
A week ago, the FBI released its 2016 hate-crime statistics. The results were jarring. Last year we saw a 5 percent increase in the number of prejudice-motivated crimes over the previous year. The trend is going in the wrong direction.
According to the FBI report, in America — the country that guarantees unalienable rights to all citizens — 6,121 hate crimes were reported in 2016, up from 5,850 in 2015. Breaking it down, the report shows that the majority of those crimes, more than half, were race based, followed by crimes against individuals and institutions based on religion, and increasing significantly were crimes directed against the LGBT community.
Shocking as those statistics are, what’s more disturbing is that Florida, according to the FBI, experienced a 33 percent increase in the number of hate crimes. Let that sink in. In this state, where we have chosen to raise our families, the probability that our friends and neighbors will be attacked because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity is rising exponentially.
As if to prove the point, two weeks ago, the Ku Klux Klan brazenly delivered flyers to people’s homes in Flagler Beach in an effort to recruit like-minded individuals to join their ranks.
And last week, Orlando’s Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center launched a campaign to “Make Hate History,” bringing awareness to the prevalence of hate groups, hate crimes and hateful acts in our community. While the campaign has received praise from many, it has also elicited a vitriolic response and shockingly vile comments. Because the campaign uses statistics from the Southern Poverty Law Center, some question the veracity of the data and the credibility of this source. Others claim that hate, especially racial and ethnic prejudice, has always existed, always will exist and is a natural part of our human existence — that people will always protect those who are like them and shun those who are different. Some even make the argument, as preposterous as it sounds, that by calling out the hate groups in our community, the center itself is a hate group.
I used to believe that if we simply would shine a light on hate and hateful acts that the good people (and I believe the vast majority of people are good) would stand up and speak out until things changed. I used to believe that the only reason things didn’t change was because people didn’t know there was a problem. But the FBI has shown us clearly that not only do we have a problem, but the problem is getting worse. And yet what I see are people taking sides ... taking sides over hate. I see people debating, defending and politicizing this issue. I see people arguing about what sources are valid, what crimes are hate crimes, what groups are hate groups and even whether hate is simply a natural part of society.
Even when we talk about something as seemingly obvious as hate or bullying in our schools, people make the argument that kids have always gotten bullied, that it’s human nature, that this is political correctness gone too far and yet another example of our society becoming too soft.
And since it feels futile to argue something that seems so obvious — hate is wrong — many of us stop arguing. We complain, we bemoan, we worry. But we stop fighting.
I, however, am not ready to stop. I am going to use every platform I have to say that hate crimes, hate groups and hate speech are wrong. I am going to use every opportunity available to say simply and clearly that we are better than this.
According to the FBI, hate crimes are on the rise, but I’m going to rise up and fight back, to make hate history.