Responding to Hate Violence: The Work Goes On

Every time some bigot terrorizes, wounds, or kills innocent children it wrenches our collective conscience.  We, at CAHRO, do not need to be reminded that something has to be done.  It is the basis for all our work.  But, rightly or wrongly, every incident carries some pain and guilt for not having been able to stop it.

We work to involve all people in the community in efforts to prevent and stop hate violence.  But when synagogues are torched in Sacramento where there is a good partnership between the local police department and the community around the issue of hate violence, and days later when children are shot by a racist bigot in Los Angeles,  which has one of the most sophisticated anti-hate violence networks anywhere in the country, we know we must do more.

Who are the bigots?  Can we prevent today's children from becoming tomorrow's racist terrorists? If we isolate ourselves to try and be safe, are we not helping bigots succeed by restricting our own freedom? How far do we want to go in the name of self protection?  These are all tough questions for us, the supposed professionals, and when they are not posed to us by the media or by our supporters, they surface in our conversations at work, at home, and disturb our sleep.

We are not a business but we understand our bottom line just as any business understands theirs.  Ours is to help build a society where people of different races, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and people with disabilities can feel free to go about their business without someone whose full of hate threatening their well-being.  The incidents in San Fernando Valley, Sacramento and other incidents occurring almost every day tell us that we have a long way to go in order to  meet our bottom line.

Even in the midst of these latest tragedies we were able to get some sense that we are on the right road.  Representatives of the congregations attacked in Sacramento report that they were buoyed by the concern expressed for their welfare by both the police and the community.  A number of Jewish residents who were alive during the Holocaust distinguished the indifference to the hate incidents preceding Hitler's rise to power from the outpouring of outrage to the latest episodes of bigotry.  These incidents, rather than paralyzing us with fear have brought about a renewed sense of urgency in the community to more effectively respond to and prevent further escalation of hate. 

We know the rapid growth in the diversity of our population and the growing number of people who are not doing well financially despite the drop in unemployment create a fertile environment for those who preach hate.  We have little chance of influencing those trends, but there is nothing inherent in those condition that fuels bigotry.  We know enough about how prejudice is formed, how it can be reduced, and what society can do to limit its impact.  We will continue to work with schools, with police and with people like you to stop bigoted acts of terror and we hope to get better at it.  Let us work together to rid our society of this cancer that threatens to destroy it.