Something has to be done about Hate Crimes......just not the way you may think!

I have been meaning to talk about my take on the definition of what a hate crime is for quite some time now. I was reminded of this due to a recent email correspondence that I had with blog commenter, Sergio. He initially sent me an article that demonstrated what many consider to be evidence of the often debated existence of liberal media bias. I actually referred to this story a few weeks ago in the post entitled, Sister Toldjah is....well....telling you about media double standards. Essentially, Toldjah's opinion (and I must concur) on the tragic story in question, pertains to the media's refusal to highlight news pieces when the alleged perpetrators of a racial crime are minorities and not Whites.

What I have been wrestling with for the last few years is the need to define a crime of racial animus as a "hate" crime. This specifically applies when it involves crimes that result in death or physical harm. Most crimes, minus the racial aspect, in my estimation are hate crimes. When an African-American gangbanger kills another rival of color in cold blood, one would be hard-pressed to disprove that crime as being other than a crime of hate. If crimes of self-hatred were not in great abundance, perhaps I would think differently-but this is not the case. Murder rates in cities such as Newark, Chicago, Philly and Camden (as well as a whole host of other cities around the nation) further prove this assertion. Perhaps when these crimes are correctly defined as hate crimes, then we can actually do something to lower the death count. I'll refrain from crossing my fingers. Feel free to share your opinions with the class.