Hate groups have been on the rise for the past two years. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) annual census report, America saw an increase in hate groups, most notably in anti-Muslim hate groups. It is important to note being a member of a hate group is not inherently a criminal act or behavior and hate crimes are not always perpetrated by people involved in hate groups. According to NBC News, despite of fewer hate crimes in many U.S. cities over the last few years, they spiked 20% in 2016. It leaves many wondering what could be the cause of what seems to be a sudden surge of intolerance.
The most important distinction to make is the difference between hate speech and hate crimes. There is no federal legislation against anything called “hate speech”. Speech in of itself is very tricky and nuanced, as evidenced by the fact that over 100 cases tried by the Supreme Court have involved the interpretation of the freedom of speech in some manner. Hate speech—while it may be controversial and bigoted—is still protected speech under the First Amendment.
I sat down with professor and lawyer Benjamin Holden to get a better understanding of how this could be.
“The First Amendment only restricts government, not action between private citizens. Hate speech in this context could be mean, nasty, bigoted words that one person says to another—between private citizens. It is not criminal unless the words are harassing or sufficiently intimidating, but that’s a different lane than the First Amendment,” he says.
What exactly does that mean in plain English? Oftentimes Americans conflate hate speech and hate crimes as one in the same, simply because they do not know otherwise. However, as Professor Holden explained, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. It is the fact that hate speech in most cases is protected like any other speech allows people with an immense amount of power, including but not limited to the president, to say things that generally is frowned upon at best. Arguably, Donald Trump’s statements about Mexicans being rapists and drug dealers , building walls, or banning Muslim people from entering the United States, or Black people “having nothing to lose” aren’t inciting violence nor are they made with an intent to intimidate. His words on their own are just words, no matter how hateful they may be.
When a person feels like they’ve been targeted but it isn’t necessarily a crime, they can file a bias report/incident. Those are more prevalent and slightly easier to prove than hate crimes, according to Lt. Joan Fiesta with the University of Illinois Police Department (UIPD).
“The chalkings on the quad. I need people to understand that because there’s no damage on the quad [so it is not a crime] but there’s people who feel that they don’t belong. That’s a bias incident. The perception is that we aren’t doing anything, but in reality, it is hard for us to prove legally,” she said. Fiesta said that while she does not have the numbers readily available, the reports of bias incidents to the UIPD have significantly increased since the election of Donald Trump.
All of this brings us full circle to the increase in reported hate crimes. Both Professor Holden and Lt. Fiesta asserted the point that a hate crime is a crime motivated by hate. For example, keying a person’s car on its own is a misdemeanor (in most states). But keying someone’s car because they are Muslim and you don’t like Muslims is a hate crime that could be looked at as a felony. As Lt. Fiesta said, it is about the intent behind the crime, not the crime itself that makes it hate.
With the polarized sociopolitical environment that Americans (and the world) are living in, certain voices have been amplified while others have been pushed to the margins. There are many resources available for those who want to resist or are looking for places of refuge. The hate map on the SPLC’s website offers a comprehensive tracking tool for all the currently active hate groups in the United States. At the U of I we have resources like the Office of Minority Student Affairs (OMSA), the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Access (ODEA), and the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Affairs (OIIR) here to provide access to support and supplemental programs in more ways than one. There are also countless student organizations that organize both on and off campus for a less hateful world.
As Lt. Fiesta iterated in our conversation, the best tool to combat hate is education. Learning about the challenges that different marginalized groups of people face systemically is the first stride we can make toward a less hateful society. This means being willing to have uncomfortable conversations, acknowledging privilege or complacency, giving those with marginalized voices the chance to speak for themselves, and finally building real coalitions to topple hate and dismantle oppressions that keep far too many people in proverbial (and sometimes literal) bondage. That is what a less hateful world looks like.