August 31, 2018
Once Hate Is Unleashed
Once hate is unleashed, some of its immediate victims may be unintended targets. In the small town of Charlottesville, Virginia – noted for its being the home base of one of the founding fathers of America, Thomas Jefferson – there was in August 2017 a white extremist rally, which was confronted by counter-protestors. A white Christian woman, Heather Hyer, was mowed down by a car driven by a white youth with homicidal intent. Her mother continues to mourn, while seeking a healing process. In that rally, anti-Semitic virulence was especially visible.
A few weeks ago, an elderly Sikh gentleman taking a walk in California was pummeled by two youths, one of them the son of a police chief. It is now being treated as a hate crime, ironically meaning that the Sikh was likely targeted for being misidentified as a Muslim because of his turban and long flowing beard. Mistaken identity has hit the Sikhs hard.
Many of the angry young males come from dysfunctional, broken families. But what has given them fresh impetus is that extreme rhetoric, which hitherto was confined to the fringes, now finds an echo chamber in seemingly respectable quarters.
600 years ago, Ibn Khaldun, a founder of modern sociology, had posited that people heed cues from their superiors.
In this connection comes now a noteworthy movie, “BlackKkklansman,” directed by Spike Lee, who made his mark by making a celebrated biopic on Malcolm X in 1992. The picture is fact-based and is drawing accolades. It tells the true story of how an undercover black police officer penetrated the extreme right Klu Klux Klan (KKK), an organization that peddles white supremacy, hatred of blacks and minorities, and uses Christian symbolism like cross-burning. It has often veered into violence and, hence, has had a terror impact on the black community. But it does articulate deeply held fears that America is being overrun by immigrants, and the nonwhite segment – because of the sheer weight of demography – might supersede the white majority and consign it to a minority.
A constant in the last couple of years has been the shooting of blacks with impunity by police, now caught by cameras.
The movie depicts that the problems that were there yesterday are omnipresent today. It’s the same story with a different name, except that it is now harder to get away with it because of cameras. The poison that infects remains pervasive.
100 years ago, there was another movie called “The Birth of a Nation,” that glorified the Klan. President Woodrow Wilson had it screened at the White House.
A docile response normalizes hate and emboldens hate groups. The sinister agenda of hate can hide in robes or three-piece suits. The Internet is a powerful tool for recruitment.
Hate misguides, manipulates, and leaves a destructive trail. Rage and resentment can be thwarted by vigorous attempts of open dialogue, and a more robust drive for sit-down interaction. It cannot be countered by a culture of victimhood.
Outside a Washington, DC suburban house was a yard sign: “Hate has no home here.” It’s a message that needs to be repeated.
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