Attorney General Xavier Becerra released the 2016 edition of the California Department of Justice Hate Crime Report on July 3. Although the report shows that over the past 10 years the total number of hate crime events have decreased 34.7 percent (1,426 in 2007 to 931 in 2016), it also shows that hate crimes have increased 11.2 percent from 2015 to 2016.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra released the 2016 edition of the California Department of Justice Hate Crime Report on July 3. Although the report shows that over the past 10 years the total number of hate crime events have decreased 34.7 percent (1,426 in 2007 to 931 in 2016), it also shows that hate crimes have increased 11.2 percent from 2015 to 2016.
Racially motivated hate crimes increased 21.3 percent in 2016. The report indicates that events involving race, ethnicity or national origin bias are the most common over the past 10 years. Anti-black or African American continue to be the most common hate crime accounting for 31.3 percent of all hate crimes since 2007. Second in line is hate crimes against sexual orientation accounted for 22.2 percent of hate crimes in 2016. Anti-gay male bias increased 40.7 percent in 2016. In the religious category, anti-Jewish motivation continues to be the most common religious bias.
San Diego County comes in second place in the list of number of hate crimes in the California report superseded by Los Angeles County. Although the number has lowered over the past 10 years, it is unsettling to see the numbers begin to rise again. This is disturbing news any way that you look at it. But San Diego had the most cases related to hate crimes in 2015. So tit for tat for those stats.
I have always realized how fortunate I am to have grown up in the Deep South, gone through the segregation of public school that was a horror story in my seventh year of school and being so young that I really did not understand. My parents raised me better than that and I am eternally grateful for their role models as parents that refused to continue the cycle of racist hatred.
It is proven through many studies throughout the years that the roots of racism are not inherited, but learned by parents and guardians first. The circle of people that a person is raised around and a constant part of their lives can then accelerate it. In some instances, some incident can trigger hatred towards a certain group, but overall it is a learned behavior. I baffles me to this day how people can have so much hatred that surround people in the world that they do not even know. Or bringing it home, in their own town or neighborhood.
This is a cycle that can only be broken by those that raise children and those that have a long lasting relationship with them whether it be socially as in a family and friends situation or institutionally as in a public or private school setting.
We have to be the examples of what is right for the children of tomorrow or this cycle of hatred will never end. I can understand being bias against behavior, but not ethnicity, gender, religious or political beliefs. I myself am biased against anyone who promotes any type of hatred against another person and extremely biased of parents, guardians and mentors that continue to teach this cycle of hatred to our young beginning in the early stages of their lives. And that is when the largest impact is embedded into their sponge-like learning minds.
Hate crimes some of the most heinous in the world. Not always because of the behavior of bullying, beatings, killings and genocides, but simply because it is a behavior that stems from the hatred of our fellow mankind.
I have no tolerance for any type of discrimination, much less discrimination that leads to violence. It is time to stop this cycle. If you were raised with discrimination in the family think whether your hatred comes from your heart or whether it was something your were taught since a child. Thank God my parents thought about that. They broke the cycle and they lived through some of the most racially horrific times in American history. It can be done, but it is up to us to do it.
