In America; Staring at Hatred
By BOB HERBERT
Published: February 28, 1999
How deep is the hatred?
After being sentenced to death in Jasper, Tex., last week, John William King was asked if he had anything to say to the relatives of his victim, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged along a country road until his body literally was torn apart.
King, a 24-year-old white supremacist, did indeed have something to say. Grinning, he assured all within earshot that Mr. Byrd's grieving survivors were welcome to perform a sex act on him.
Most Americans would like to believe that the attack on Mr. Byrd was an aberration, that it was so far over the top, so sick and inhumane, that it should not be viewed as representative of a much larger societal problem. The reasoning is more or less as follows: The vast majority of Americans were repelled by the murder, arrests were quickly made, and the legal steps toward the ultimate societal sanction are already being taken. Let's move on.
That attitude presupposes that race hatred and other forms of prejudice and intolerance in America are not nearly as deep or as dangerous as the attack on Mr. Byrd might suggest.
A long litany of tragedies tells us otherwise.
Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student in Wyoming, died last fall after he was kidnapped, robbed, tied to a fence, beaten in the head with a .357 Magnum, tortured with cigarettes, taunted as he wept and begged for his life, and finally left alone and helpless in near-freezing temperatures. Authorities said he was murdered, at least in part, because he was gay.
A recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which tracks hate crimes and hate groups across the country, is filled with other horrible examples that occurred last year.
In February, the report said, a dark-haired young woman named Amy Robinson was abducted in Fort Worth, Tex., and murdered by two white men who used her for target practice. They were reported to have burst out laughing when she died. The original plan, according to one of the men, was ''to go out and shoot black folks.'' Ms. Robinson was chosen because the men thought she was biracial. They were mistaken. Ms. Robinson was, in fact, white.
In October in Buffalo, N.Y., a group of black teen-agers attacked a 41-year-old white man, Gary Trzaska, as he was walking to his car. Mr. Trzaska, who was gay, was beaten and stomped to death. Witnesses said they saw the teen-agers jumping high in the air so they could land on Mr. Trzaska's head with both feet. They said the boys appeared to be gleeful as they killed their victim.
Last spring a group of whites ''armed with brass knuckles and chanting 'white power' '' attacked Lance Cpl. Carlos Colbert, a 21-year-old black Marine, as he left a party in San Diego, Calif. As many as 30 men joined in the assault. Corporal Colbert was not killed, but his neck was broken. He is paralyzed from the neck down.
Last May a racially charged exchange in a bar led to the murder of Mark Dale Butts, a 35-year-old white man. He was beaten to death in a cemetery in Victor, Colo., by a group of black men and teen-agers. A shovel was used in the attack. Authorities said Mr. Butts was beaten so hard the handle of the shovel eventually broke.
Morris Dees, the chief trial counsel of the Law Center, said he is surprised by what appears to be the increasing frequency and viciousness of such attacks. They are being committed by whites and blacks, he said. Much of the hatred is fueled by the growing number of organized hate groups and the proliferation of Internet sites devoted to racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of intolerance.
The desire to turn away from a crime as grotesque as the murder of James Byrd in Jasper, Tex., is understandable. Once justice is done, what's the point of wallowing in the hideousness of the crime?
But there is a need to understand the rage and the frustrations and the impulses that lead so many of us to mayhem in the name of some warped sense of superiority, or inadequacy, or fear, or whatever.
Dragging someone to his death behind a truck may be unusual. But torturing, maiming and killing people because they fit a certain despised profile is an everyday occurrence. We can hardly stop it if we're not even willing to look at it.
Vocabulary:
supremacist
aberration
inhumane
repelled
sanction
presupposes
prejudice
intolerance
litany
taunted
abducted
biracial
viciousness
proliferation
racism
anti-Semitism
homophobia
impulses
mayhem
warped
superiority
inadequacy
Questions:
a. What crime did John William King commit?
b. What other examples of hate crimes does the author describe? Who were the victims of these crimes, and who committed them? What “reasons” were given for committing these crimes?
c. What is the conclusion reached by the Southern Poverty Law Center about incidents of hate crimes?
d. According to Morris Dees, chief trial counsel of the Southern Povery Law Center, what is fueling the hatred that leads to hate crimes?
e. Are the victims of hate crimes and those who commit them restricted to a particular group of people? Give examples to support your answer.
f. Do you agree with the statement, “The desire to turn away from a crime as grotesque as the murder of James Byrd in Jasper, Tex., is understandable”? What reason does the author give for this attitude?
g. Why do you think “some sense of warped superiority, or inadequacy, or fear” might lead someone to commit a hate crime?
h. Based on the final paragraph of the article, what is the author’s opinion about what needs to be done in order to stop hate crimes?
i. What is a hate crime? How is a hate crime different from other crimes?
j. What is the relationship between hate crimes and attitudes of prejudice and intolerance?
k. Where do individuals learn attitudes of prejudice, intolerance, and hatred?