Who’s to say a person is undeserving of basic human rights based on a simple biological factor? Countless hate groups across the United States have used biological qualities to discriminate against bodies of people for generations. Ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to Neo-Nazi groups, Anti-LGTBQ+ organizations, and more, the US has an epidemic of hate. Hundreds of hate groups perform crimes and actively discriminate against people on the ground of race, gender, sexual orientation, background, disabilities, language and more. As philosopher John Locke says: “. . . [Man has to] preserve the members of . . . society in their lives, liberty, and possessions”. Allowing hate groups to continue to thrive in our society and deteriorate the position of minorities isn’t preserving the lives and the liberty of all men. This inexcusable damage and undermined issue is not only unethical, but is a violation of Human Declaration of Rights #2 which states that everyone is equal despite differences in skin color, sex, religion, and language. This investigation aims to conclude the question of to what extent the 2016 election has been a inflexion point for hate activity in the United States. Hate groups that discriminate against and dehumanize people have been present in the United states since the civil war, however since the 2016 election hate activity has increased due to certain government officials promoting discriminatory ideology, and the justice system’s neglect in vigorously police hate groups.
Chapter 2: The Historical Prevalence of Hate Groups
Since the United States Civil War in the 1800’s, hate groups have been a prevalent and rising issue in this country. By no means are hate institutions a new problem just hitting the radar today. Some of the organizations that are currently established in the US have roots that date back to the 1800’s and still continue to thrive. The Ku Klux Klan, an infamous white supremacy group, was established in 1866 according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. This particularly redundant hate group, which has over 50 organizations across the US, specifically targets African Americans, Immigrants, Jews, Gays, and Lesbians. Over the past 200 years, the Ku Klux Klan has performed many significant and devastating hate acts including a wave of bombings in black schools and churches in the 1960’s as noted in the article, “Ku Klux Klan”, by History.com. Long before this event, the Ku Klux Klan appeared in South Carolina, a notorious area for their crimes, and lynched 8 black prisoners from the union jail. In the mid-1960’s, 4 Klansmen were arrested for the murder of a white, female, civil rights worker. The Ku Klux Klan is one of several hate groups that has been around from the beginning of this country and has an extensive timeline of abusive and discriminatory behavior. There have been dormant periods, yet the Ku Klux Klan has resurfaced to the surprise of the citizens of this country commiting vulgar crimes and increasing Klansmen numbers. Another prevalent and prominent hate organization is the National Alliance, a particular branch of anti-semitic, Jew-hating, Neo-Nazis that were founded in the 1970’s. The leader of a particular faction of the National Alliance, William Pierce, invested close to $100,000 into a church facility that was used to practice a white supremacy religion by the name of cosmotheism in the 1970’s. Pierce also became the author of several books that became an interest to white supremacists. According to the Anti-Defamation League, his book titled The Turner Diaries, “. . . calls for the violent overthrow of the federal government and the systematic killing of Jews and nonwhites in order to establish an ‘Aryan’ society”. This book was “considered the inspiration behind the crime spree in the early 1980s perpetrated by a white supremacist gang called The Order, led by Robert Mathews”. Although the inspiring Pierce novels didn’t end there, the National Alliance leader also wrote a book titled, Hunter, which follows the life of a racist serial killer attempting to purify America by murdering interracial couples and Jews. These suggestive books are full of racist, discriminatory concepts and have been around for years. The National Alliance had a considerable impact on their own targets, and even nudged other hate groups to commit crimes over the decades. These specific hate organizations committed numerous offenses and inspired even more hate activity in the United States. Hate crimes and organizations have been a recurring theme throughout the history of America, and even continue to prevail today.
Chapter 3: Governmental Discriminatory Ideology
Although hate activity has been a normal issue in the United States since the end of the civil war, the 2016 election provoked an increase in hate related actions due to Government officials promoting discriminatory ideology and policies. As shown by the San Francisco Chronicle, there were an astonishing 7,175 hate crimes across the the US in 2017 compared to 6121 hate crimes in 2016. A dramatic and surprising increase is evident from before the 2016 election to now. Since the election of President Donald J. Trump, more discriminatory policies targeted at minorities including immigrants have been promoted. In April of 2017, Trump introduced a policy aimed at controlling the flow of undocumented immigrants from the southern US border called the “Zero Tolerance Policy”. His policy openly encouraged the prosecution of suspected undocumented immigrants and according to Representative Frank Pallone Jr. interviewed by the New York Times, Trump was: “carrying out a cruel and misguided policy impacting thousands of families”. The exact groups targeted by a prominent political figure became the same popular targets acts of hate. As shown by an FBI study in the San Francisco Chronicle, an astonishing 603 of the 1095 hate crimes reported in 2017 in California alone were based on race, ethnicity or ancestry, the same aspects being targeted by the Trump Administration policies. The sudden spike in this category of hate crimes coincidentally took place right after the establishment of racially discriminatory policies put in place by the government and many believe it is a direct relationship between the Trump Administration’s inflammatory rhetoric and discriminatory policies and the citizens of the United States. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón had a theory for the overlap of these events and according to the San Francisco Chronicle, he stated: “America’s elected president has mocked the disabled, called Mexicans rapists and murderers, executed a Muslim travel ban, issued disparaging remarks about women and African Americans, and is working to roll back protections for members of our transgender community, The country’s increase in hate crimes should be a surprise to no one, but it should be alarming to all. We look to our elected leaders to set an example”. Gascón came to an excellent conclusion; our country’s leader is an example to all, their actions impact the decisions that citizens make and deem appropriate. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, data released by the FBI entailed over 150 reported hate crimes from 2016 to 2017 based solely on gender and gender identity. At the same time, Trump personally announced that the United States Military would not allow any transgender identifying persons to join while the justice department cut ties with LGBTQ+ organizations which they assisted with labor and employment cases. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality in March of 2017, under Trump’s approval; “The Department of Justice took the highly unusual step of declining to appeal a nationwide preliminary court order temporarily halting enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination protections for transgender people”. Whether or not it is believable that a single person could have such a negative effect on a country, the numbers and statistics of reported hate crimes targeting minority groups and the Trump Administration Policies introduced after the 2016 election show a significant correlation.
Chapter 4: Justice Department Negligence in Policing Hate Activity
Since the 2016 election, many actions have been taken by the United States Justice Department that limit their resources and effort towards policing hate groups and preventing hate crimes. As mentioned above, shortly after the 2016 election, the Justice Department halted act that supported the protection of transgender people. Around the same time, the Justice Department also announced that they were abandoning a historic lawsuit that challenged North Carolina’s anti-transgender law. Simultaneously, North Carolina experienced a 12% increase in hate crimes targeting people based on race, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and gender. It seems that immediately after the Justice Department withdrew their concern from North Carolina’s discriminatory laws and decided to allow them to continue, hate crimes targeting the same groups spiked. The direct relationship between the Justice Department deeming anti-transgender laws unworthy of their time and the increase in hate crimes against transgender people came to the attention of Replacements, LTD. CEO, Bob Page, he commented; “When we choose to protect some minority groups from being attacked, but not others, we make clear that the groups we exclude are undeserving of equal treatment under the law. That kind of exclusion seeps into the culture, and allows some to dehumanize others” according to the Charlotte Observer. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, in October of 2017, the Justice Department “. . .released a memo instructing Department of Justice attorneys to take the legal position that federal law does not protect transgender workers from discrimination”. In 2017 overall, there was a 10% increase of hate crimes targeting people based on gender(identity) in California and a 6% national increase in gender-related hate crimes. These results identify a direct relationship between the Justice Department's withdrawal of policing existing hate problems and reported hate crimes across the US.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
The implications of this investigation have shows great findings. The ideology put into place by the President of the United States and the lack of adequate policing of existing hate issues and acts by the Justice Department had a significant effect on the rising numbers of hate crimes after the 2016 election. The actions of the United States Government have a huge impact on the citizens of this country. The direct relationship between the increase in hate crimes and the simultaneous promotion of discriminatory policies and lack of monitoring hate crimes shows the extent of the impact. This country mirrors what our authorities project on us, good and bad. Hate crime numbers after the 2016 election have showed the direct relationship between the government and hate activity in the United States. The election was a very extreme turning point for hate groups and hate crimes and the citizens of this country are the ones taking the hit. Whether or not it is believable, the people that the citizens elect to power can change our country for the better or for the worse. It is our hope that we can put people into power who will be attentive to these issues and hopefully end discrimination in the future. As stated by Human Declaration of Rights #2, everyone is equal despite differences in skin color, sex, religion, and language. It is dehumanizing to use something like ancestry, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, language, and background as a way to hurt someone. Everyone is equal and deserves to feel secure in their life, liberty, and possessions.