FBI Reports Increase in Hate Crimes Against African Americans

Crisis, The, Jan/Feb 2005 by Russell, Malik

From music CDs by White supremacists being handed out to middle and high school students around the country to threatening letters to actor Taye Diggs and his wife because of their interracial marriage, crimes against individuals because of race are up, and African Americans remain at the top of the list.

According to the FBI report, "Hate Crime Statistics 2003," hate crimes against African Americans were nearly twice that of all other race groups combined. The total number of hate crimes rose slightly to 7,489. Thirty-four percent were against Blacks. Overall, nearly 2,548 total hate crimes were motivated by anti-Black sentiments, which resulted in 3,150 victims, including four murders.

But according to Mark Potok director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., "the numbers are almost worthless."

"Hate crimes statistics vastly understate the reality of hate crimes on the street," says Potok. "As a practical matter, you cannot tell if hate crimes are going up or going down."

But while the number of hate crimes victims reported is disproportionately African American, the vast majority of offenders were White - 62 percent, compared with only 18.5 percent who were Black offenders.

There are a number of reasons for the continued White violence against Blacks, such as the "hatecore" music that is being produced by White Supremacist groups to recruit teenagers. The neo-Nazi group, Panzerfaust, for example, said they planned to distribute 100,000 CDs spewing racist messages at schools around the country.

Ray Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore, says the idea that after 9/11 African Americans were no longer the most despised members of American society was simply temporary.

African Americans remain targets of hate attacks, says Winbush, because of the "consistent undeniable portrayal of African Americans as being violent and criminal."

- Malik Russell