this is just a topic for hate crimes as two threads are leaning towards discussing them instead of their overall topics...

Thanks for starting a new thread on it.

My position: Hate crimes make thought illegal. That's wrong and we should never move in that direction.

except you are yet to figure out what hate crimes are and how they work...

Hate crime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Hate crimes differ from conventional crime because they are not directed simply at an individual, but are meant to cause fear and intimidation in an entire group or class of people."

they cause mass panic. It is not the hate that is illegal. It is the act of causing mass panic. Learn that. Repeat that until you understand it. Hate crime is just a name for it. Not the definition. It is not making hate illegal.

Except that is not the way they are actually used. They aren't used only in cases where there was a mass panic. They aren't used only in cases where there was a potential for mass panic. If they were, that might be a defensible position.

I think 'mass panic' is not the best choice of words. This quote from the US Supreme Court may be instructive:

Hmmm. Interesting. I've been thinking about this more and maybe there's something to it. I don't know if any of you had been born when the Rodney King thing happened, but the result was black people rioting, burning their neighborhoods down, looting, etc.

Then, during those riots, some black guys pulled this white guy out of his truck for no reason and smashed him over the head with a cinder block. White people didn't burn their neighborhoods down.

herm how you are managing to connect rioting to hate crimes... i don't think you are missing the point. I think you are purposely avoiding it.

In my sarcastic way, I just showed you that you can't really make an automatic connection between a "hate crime" (which the Rodney King beating was not) and riots. The same goes for this concept of yours you're calling "mass panic."

Can you give me an example of "mass panic" caused by a "hate crime?"

You've got be kidding me. This cannot be a serious post. I refuse to believe you are this simple-minded and devoid of understanding the plight of black people in America.

Unfortunately, you've done it again (or fortunately). You make assertions which if pursued, will take a thread off course. You seem to be a master at this.

The only thing you have proven is that you are an ignoramus.

That's a nice way of putting it. When he "talks" it's more like he's puking and belching up chunks of rancid meat.

Let me guess... I need to be black to understand? Do you know what color my skin is? I didn't miss any facts. Some cops beat the shit out of Rodney King and black people rioted. Care to dispute that?

You have at least this part correct. Unless you've worn this skin in America you have no idea what an impediment it has been.

You would do much better using examples which you yourself are acquainted with and can defend on a personal level.

You're what I like to call an incidental or fortuitous casualty of American racism. The problem with your kind is you don't even understand your disease, and are therefore in complete denial of it.

Am I racist? You bet I am. How can I not be? The difference between me and you is I understand my racism, I've had to watch it grow in me since I was a young boy who just wanted to be looked at and accepted like other non-black kids. Am I a victim? Not anymore, because I now stand up to people with black hearts and refuse to be held down by outrageous insinuations and name calling from the likes of your kind.

In this day in age, EVERYONE is to blame for racism. We need to stop looking at groups of people, and instead look at everyone individually.

The problem is that we're too willing to categorize people by the way they talk, the color of their skin, their religion, their ancestry, or their sexual orientation. If we stop trying to put people into groups, this world would be a much better place.

amen

Nah, i dont think it is specifically racism that is the problem. I that black people simply started poorer in the past, and they havent gotten richer yet.
People just like to blame it on racism because they want to keep the illusion that everyone has a decent chance to become who they want to be in America. The prefer being racist then non-meritocratic.

Just like I could theoretically become king of the world.

It's called the American Dream because it does only work in your dreams.

Why don't you stop beating around the bush and making your own "outrageous insinuations" and tell me what I said that you consider racist? That black people rioted? They did. Stating a historical fact makes me a racist?

Source

Its not like you were in diapers when it happened. You seriously don't remember?

I object to this as I always do when anyone says "Unless you have experienced it yourself you have no idea". My reaction, in short, is 'speak for yourself'. Maybe you don't have an intellect capable of empathy - maybe many people don't. But I do, and many other people do. It is a fundamental part of life in my view to 'put yourself in someone else's shoes'.

When it all boils down, saying 'you have no idea what it's like to be a (woman/man/black/soldier/team member/mother/etc/etc)' seems to be an immature expression of feeling sorry for yourself to me. Ever heard the expression 'think outside the box'? You seem to be contained by your box - that's fine if you want to live such a restrictive life - your right entirely. But don't try to tell me I am incapable of looking outside my 'box'.

Experience and understanding are not the same thing.

Well said.

Interestingly, this is the exact reason that we should refrain from using name calling that supports the discrimination (e.g. faggot) - even if you are using it jokingly, the word use will be seen/heard by others who do not comprehend your (attempt at) humour, and will be used by them (often subconsciously) to help reinforce their discriminatory beliefs.