Carlee Swartz
cs331016@ohio.edu
This year has been composed of a lot of media attention and use. With a lot of participation on social media including sharing political and non-political opinions has led to a very long list of hate crimes. Hate crimes are often overlooked as "freedom of speech", but this year others have made a stance to end such behavior. Following the death of George Floyd, riots flooded through the streets demanding justice and peace after he was arrested and killed by a police officer.
Social media was buzzing with support towards the black community as well others posted their support for the police force. Those supporting the black community stated that the police and justice system needed to be reworked and fought back during protests as police forces arrested those protesting. Videos circulated the internet from both sides of this protest creating a huge amount of media attention.
After these protests, many began targeting policemen around the country violently, some even killed. This was also the case against the black community as many shared their own video experience with police officers arresting them stating that they were being arrested without proper reason. Both scenarios caused a lot of stereotyping amongst the black community and the police force.
We have seen this type of behavior throughout history. Germans living in America changed their name after World War II involving the war against Germany. A similar situation happened with Arabs living in America after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Many Arabs were stereotyped on buses, planes, and even attacked walking down the streets.
How we can begin to understand these hate crimes and the people who are committing them is the first step to putting an end to it for good. This article from the American Psychological Association discusses how we can recognize socially alarming behavior that eventually leads to attacks and crimes such as the ones we have pointed out. Those who seem to be socially introverted and interested in acts of violence at a young age are just some of the examples of behavior to look out for.
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| Picture source: asisonline.org. |
We can also become more educated as a society by making the effort to stop history from repeating itself. Understanding what has happened in the past and the outcomes can help us learn to react differently in the future. Social media filters can take down any post that involves inappropriate and offensive content through an automatic flagging system, but unfortunately, a lot of hate crimes online get overlooked. With almost 4.60 billion people using the internet, it is difficult to sift it all out.
To make a difference in putting an end to hate crime, it will have to be a group effort. If you see any type of content that you find offensive to you or others, contact the website administrator immediately as well as flagging it. This website lists different ways adults and the youth can contribute to putting a stop to hate crimes.
Hi Carlee, you drove your point home with this post. I think you make a great point of how we can become more educated as a society and this will help to stop history repeat itself. While I wish this could happen at the snap of a finger, this is something that will take time. I think also you point of how it has to be a group effort to put an end to hate crime and it will take a conscious effort from every single person.
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