Here are the latest statistics on hate crimes in the USA, cut and pasted, verbatim, from the FBI\’s own web page:
Lawenforcement agencies that reported hate crime data to the UniformCrime Reporting (UCR) Program identified 5,814 known offenders in5,928 bias-motivated incidents in 2013. In the UCR Program, the termknown offender does not imply that the suspect\’s identity isknown; rather, the term indicates that some aspect of the suspect wasidentified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender.Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, whenpossible, the race, ethnicity, and age of the offender or offendersas a group.
In2013, the national UCR Program began collecting revised race andethnicity data in accordance with a directive from the U.S.Government\’s Office of Management and Budget. The race categorieswere expanded from four (White, Black, American Indian or AlaskanNative, and Asian or Other Pacific Islander) to five (American Indianor Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiianor Other Pacific Islander, and White). The ethnicity categorieschanged from “Hispanic” and “Non-Hispanic” to “Hispanic orLatino” and “Not Hispanic or Latino.” (See the Methodologyfor more information about this program change as well as others.)
Byrace, ethnicity, and age
Race
In2013, race was reported for 5,814 known hate crime offenders. Ofthese offenders:
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52.4 percent were White.
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24.3 percent were Black or African American.
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7.0 percent were groups made up of individuals of various races (Group of Multiple Races).
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0.8 percent (49 offenders) were American Indian or Alaska Native.
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0.7 percent (40 offenders) were Asian.
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0.1 percent (3 offenders) were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
- 14.8 percent were unknown. (Based on Table 9.)
Notice anything interesting?
Let\’s start with the number itself: less than 6,000 reported hate crimes in a country of about 320,000,000. That is less than one per 50,000 of the population. Even if you assume (as I do) that the real total is multiples of that 6,000, I think it is clear that the problem of hate crimes is not anywhere as endemic as the protesters who disrupt our lives to condemn the USA\’s lack of tolerance would have us believe.
Then we have the hate crimes by race.
White people comprise slightly less than 70% of the population, but account for just 52% of all hate crimes. By contrast, Black people comprise about 14% of the population, but account for 24% of all hate crimes.
What does that tell you? At the very least, it tells you that White people have no monopoly on hate crimes. And that Black people are not always the victims.
So when you talk about hate crimes in the USA, should the dialogue be more about White people committing hate Crimes on Black people? Or vice versa?
The answer is…neither.
That dialogue – whatever those percentages are – should be about hate crimes, period. All of them. Regardless of skin color. Because all hate crime is repugnant.
Otherwise, you just might be perceived as being ok with hatred…as long as it is perpetrated against the people you prefer to be victimized. Which would make you a practitioner of what you are claiming to be against.
Fair enough?
