The Loathsome Nature of Hate Crimes

On the souls of my children, this is a true story.

When I lived in Columbus, Ohio, my husband worked about a mile and a half away from our home.  It was an easy drive, but a shitty walk.  All highways, no sidewalks. Poorly lit.  Scary stuff.  But, walk I did, from our apartment on Ravine Bluff Court, to his job on Morse Road, on a fairly regular basis.  We were not exactly rich, and I had no car.  Hell, I had no license, thanks to a stroke I'd had years prior.  

So I walked that mile and a half from time to time, to meet him at the end of his shift.  Until the night I was the victim of a hate crime.  Yes, a hate crime.  A black girl, whom I gauged to be about 17 or so, leaped from her bike, kicked me, and kicked me again, and again.  She spit on me and yanked hair from my head.  She called me names.  And I was guilty of, what?  Wearing the best Kmart clothes I had?  I was not in finery.  I had on a fleece jacket, and jeans and sneakers.  Cheap sneakers.  No brand.  There was nothing about me that screamed racial insensitivity, or incited jealousy, except, in this case, the fact that I was a "fucking white whore."  For approximately six minutes, on a cold Sunday night in Ohio, I was beaten for the color of my skin.  

Black on white violence exists.  It is real.  I was the victim of a hate crime.  And yet, merely sharing this story will, if I am judging the current political climate correctly, result in me being labeled a racist, and losing friends and gaining enemies. 

Even though I was the victim.

Even though the girl who beat me made it clear she hated me because I was white.  Period.

Because, as a white woman of privilege, I cannot be victimized, except possibly by privileged white men. 

Racism exists.  Hate exists.  I know whites who hate blacks and straights who hate gays and catholics who hate prods and jews who hate muslims.  Now, turn that around.  I know blacks who hate whites, and gays who hate straights, and prods who hate catholics, and muslims who hate jews.

Hate is hate.  And all violent crime is an act of hate.  Ask the thousands of children who are raped, beaten and even murdered  every year, for reasons that have NOTHING to do with skin tone or sexual orientation. These children suffer and die because hate is easier to take out on the weak and defenseless, than on those who might actually have a shot at fighting back. 

A black girl once beat me up for being white.  Meanwhile, a few months ago, a white man beat his two year old white son to death four blocks from my house.  Not for nothin', but I'd ask you to cut my attacker some slack, and nail the baby killer's balls to the wall.  And he and I are both white. How 'bout that?

Cheers.  And please spell check your hate mail.  Thanks.