Hate crimes in the Los Angeles Unified School District have risen 300% in the less than a decade, “where racially charged brawls have disrupted campuses in recent months.” That may make things sound worse than they are, however, since the absolute numbers show an increase from 12 in 1995-1996 to 52 in 2003-2004.
And the explanation?
“It’s always been there, but schools are getting more diverse and ethnic tensions are growing and we have to deal with it,” said Sheila Roth, student cabinet adviser at Taft High School….
Silly me. I thought diversity was a good thing, and that it was supposed to reduce “ethnic tensions.”
Well, it might also be what happens when kids aren’t civilized by their parents. I have a feeling this crap would go on even if all the kids were the same race.
Although I agree with all points above, it can also occur when the tiniest of slights are now considered “hate crimes.”
Just as the terrorist police at the airport are confiscating nail clippers from 105 lb. women (they found me out) to prevent jets from being downed, I would bet that some of these “hate crimes” constitute someone looking at someone cross-eyed or saying something that rates 1% offensive on the insult-o-meter.
Pretty sad that it has come to all this.
I’m with you, Cicero. Too bad they can’t focus on how we are all human beings, rather than on every slight difference among us.
You namby-pamby do gooders make me sick! Humans come in tribes and clans. These groupings are meant to fight each other for dominance. Evolution made us this way and you may as well get used to it since it’s going to be this way for at least another million years.
“Silly me. I thought diversity was a good thing, and that it was supposed to reduce “ethnic tensions.””
Well, it does. Er, except when it doesn’t.
Why do I suspect that any fight in which someone yelled a racial epithet is being classed as a “hate crime” here? “Racially charged brawl” does not equal “hate crime” in my book, and kids fighting or teasing use whatever epithets they think will hurt the most. (Which is how this straight, blonde female discovered in high school that she was a “l*zzie” and had “n*gger lips.”)
The thing I’d want to track alongside this “hate crime” rise is the total rise in “brawls,” if any. If that hasn’t gone up substantially, I’d say this is more a change in nomenclature than an increase in racially-motivated violence.