In the past week, I’ve read two reports about hate crimes that took place in the U.S. Needless to say, I found the acts of violence perpetuated by race and/or religion both disgusting and disturbing. These types of attacks show our country has a long way to go when it comes to racial tolerance.

The first hate crime I read about concerned an attack on a white teenage boy from New York who was beaten in the head with a chunk of concrete by a group of teenagers. The boy’s father believes the attackers acted violently towards his son because the boy is in a relationship with an African-American woman. The second attack took place in Michigan and involved a group of teenage boys who made racial insults to a 16-year-old Muslim girl, ripped off her headscarf and assaulted her. The teens also attacked her older brother when he tried to come to his sister’s defense.

It is appalling that racially motivated crimes are still happening in the 21st century. You would think that at this point, people would see all individuals as human beings who deserve to be treated dignity and respect. But apparently some people cannot come to terms with racial differences and choose to inflict harm on people they see as different from themselves.

In both cases, the attacks were perpetuated by groups of teenagers. On one hand, it is easy to attribute these attacks to teenagers being immature and ignorant. However, I personally find the fact the attackers were teenagers very sobering. These teenagers were not born racists; they probably learned racism in their homes from their parents. If parents are still teaching their children to look down on other racial or religious groups in 2009, then we can expect racism to remain a strong force in society for at least our lifetimes.

Very rarely do people express their dislike of another race in public because such behavior is no longer socially acceptable. Most of the time, people learn this from their parents, but when parents do not teach their children to respect all people regardless of race, then how will their children learn to interact productively with members of other races? In grade school, I was always taught to “be nice” to everyone. However, there was never any discussion of racism in school. The prevalence of these hate crimes shows schools should start addressing this uncomfortable topic in case some children are living in a home where bigotry is the name of the game.

In the current environment, there is an unfortunate risk of widespread racism. In times of an economic downturn, there may be increased hatred of groups different from one’s own because the hated group is competing for fewer jobs. For example, in the 1840s, America suffered from a very weak economy, and the Know Nothing Party, a nativist party that feared the growing number of Irish and German Catholic immigrants, emerged. In the information technology age, this type of organizing can happen quickly and on a widespread scale.

The election of the first African-American president has also sparked racism. I am not insinuating that anyone who disagrees with Obama’s policies is a racist, but I am suggesting there are people out there who oppose Obama because of his race.
I think everyone can agree that hate crimes are horrible, and that they should not be tolerated. It is important for everyone to combat hate in both their public and private lives in order to prevent future racially motivated attacks. 

—Aimee Sobhani is a junior in the College of Arts and Science. She can be reached at aimee.f.sobhani@vanderbilt.edu.