Is Hate Really Such a Strong Word?
“Hand Sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie. We need alcohol,”. Those were the only words uttered on a New York City Subway cart on February 4th, 2017. It was a sad and confusing day for the people of New York City. A man by the name of Gregory Locke was on his way home from dinner that evening, exhausted and excited to get home. He had no idea what he was about to encounter. When he stepped onto the subway cart, he could not believe what his eyes were seeing. Plastered all over the walls and windows were disturbing images of Swastikas and Anti-Semetic phrases such as, “Jews Belong in the Oven” and “Destroy Israel, Heil Hitler”. It was completely vandalized. Gregory and the other people on the subway cart stood there in pure silence, and their shock suddenly turned into fear. Their eyes wandered around, all unsure of what to do or say. That was when a man named Jared Nied took initiative and said those brave words which inspired everyone, especially Gregory. Suddenly, everyone got to their feet and worked together in harmony, without uttering a word, to get rid of the messages of hate that were radiating throughout the subway cart.
It’s shocking, I know. But with what has been going on in the world today, is it really a surprise that we see yet another instance of hate and racism targeting such innocent people? As much as it hurt to see this, I was not shocked by it. But what does make my head turn is the bigger picture to all of this madness and it is something that is hard to wrap my head around: Why has the world been witnessing such an increase in Hate Crimes within the last few months?
Throughout my life, I have never been one to actively read the news, until this year. Everyday, whenever I got the chance, I found myself constantly checking Twitter and following CNN along with other news outlets to learn about what has been going on in the world, and I just couldn’t stop. Whether it was in class, after class, before bed or even at the dinner table, it consumed my mind. It felt like an addiction because as much as I wanted to stop because it made me unhappy, I just couldn’t. Day after day, I would read something more shocking than the last. It started off as verbal encounters of racism throughout America, but then it lead to deaths and violence. Eventually I just stopped reading, because nothing stood out to me anymore. The reason I was reading the news so often was because we were experiencing a period of change: the election of Donald Trump.
According to the New York Times on December 5, 2016, “there has been a 35 percent increase (in Hate Crimes) over last year” (Nir 1). It is easy to assume that since then, that number has increased drastically. Vox news reported that, “in the first month after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center collected 1,094 reports of what it calls ‘bias-related incidents’ against immigrants, Muslims, Jews, women, and LGBTQ individuals.”(Wildman 1). There was a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, a mosque was burnt down in Texas, a Muslim man was shot outside his house in Dallas, a Muslim woman was attacked on a Subway cart in New York City, and the list goes on and on. Just in the month of January, over sixty Jewish Community Centres across the United States have received a total of 90 bomb threats. A Rabbi in New York City told Vox news, “ ‘It feels like hate has gone mainstream, and so it is a time of real fear,’” and says that, “it feels like anti-Semitism is somehow suddenly ‘more socially acceptable than it has been in a generation or two.’” (Wildman 1).
It is hard to understand why certain people feel the need to hate others without any logical reasoning. Below is an image explaining the main targets of hate crimes in 1992 (Haider-Markel 71)
We can see that the minorities who were being attacked then are still being attacked now. Although the same minorities are being harassed now, the main issue is that it has gotten worse instead of better. We now live in a world where everyone can be seen as equal, but some people are still not convinced, and these are the people that are instilling fear in all of us and sending shivers down our spine.
Although hate has always been present in our world, Donald Trump has influenced more of it, but what exactly is hate? What is triggered in our bodies when we hate, and where does hate come from? A study was conducted at University College London in 2008 and scientists made some discoveries about strong feelings such as hate and love in relation to the brain. They found that when people feel hatred towards someone or something, two parts of the brain, the putamen and the insular cortex light up. This also happens when someone also feels love. The only difference between these two emotions is that, “when a person sees another person he or she loves, the areas of the frontal cortex associated with judgment and critical thinking typically become less active than normal. But when subjects saw someone they hated, most of the frontal cortex remained active”(Kiger 1-2). Hate is such an intense emotion, and even love cannot compete with it. It is dangerous and it can consume your entire body. It is like a monster that cannot be tamed. There really is a deeper reasoning behind hate than there is for love. But what is that reasoning and where does it come from?
To me, and to Sean Elliot, a Humanities teacher at Dawson, hate really comes from fear. When I asked him why he thinks that there are so many Hate Crimes happening now, he said, “When people are confronted with change, they engage in either a tribalism or they get involved with fundamentalist religious movements”. I think that that is exactly what is happening in our world right now, change. Change is something that most people are afraid of, I know I am. Even something so small as changing the decor in my room scares me. So it seems to make sense that with Donald Trump being the President of the United States, this period of change will result in fear, and the hate that he has towards certain minorities will influence his followers to portray that same hate. Elliot explains that humans, “like to connect dots and make road maps of the world and when we try to figure out the relationship between cause and effect, ‘I lost my job because of x,y,z…’ … and so the tribalism and the hate crimes are really a byproduct of that human desire to create road maps and then act on those road maps.” He continues with, “We create road maps because we have fear. We want to find explanations for things.”. To me, this makes perfect sense as to why people turn their fear into hate. People like to create situations in their mind to justify and make them feel better about their own mistakes and failures. People make themselves believe that all Muslims are terrorists, so they feel like it is necessary to “do what they can to stop them”. To these people, putting the blame on others gives them a sense of relief and accomplishment. They are scared of accepting their own troubles so they blame other people.
When I think of this, I immediately relate this back to the Holocaust. The Holocaust started because the Nazis believed that the Jews caused problems in their country. If there were economic issues, it was the Jew’s fault. The Nazis put the blame on the Jews for everything that went wrong, perhaps because they were frightened by them, and that is why Hitler decided to execute “The Final Solution.”.
Fear really does lead to hate. As a 19 year old student who normally enjoys school, I was petrified of writing this essay. I was afraid that it was not going to be good enough, that I was not going to find proper information and that I was not going to have enough time. As you could probably guess, this caused me to HATE this essay. The thought of sitting down to write about this topic and the thought of searching the internet for useful information created a burning knot in my stomach. It made me angry, I felt like I had to take my anger out on someone or something, and regretfully, I did. I started acting moody around the house and giving more attitude than usual to my parents. That isn’t who I am, and once I realized that I could do this essay if I really sat down and focused, I became myself again. I am not saying that this is the solution to the madness that is going on in the world, because we really can’t control what people do, and as I discovered, neither can they.
Scientists have also done research on something called ‘implicit biases’. These are subconscious values and opinions that we have without really knowing that we have them. It is sort of like our mind has an alter ego and it can choose to posses us whenever it wants. It can force us to do actions that we don’t even know we are doing. In Thomas Woodson’s paper, “Science’s Role in Reducing US Racial Tensions”, they use small examples such as giving dirty looks or not sitting next to someone to explain what our implicit bias does. He says that, “If someone has an implicit bias against a certain race or gender, then that person is less likely to show warm, unplanned actions towards the biased group.” (Woodson 1). This is definitely not an excuse for racism, discrimination and hatred, but it helps us understand where it can stem from. Woodson also explains that because of our implicit biases, there is a limit to our free will. Prejudices and biases are not always something that we can control because they can be drilled into our brains because of who and what we are surrounded by, and this might be able to explain the outburst of hate and racism today.
Although people cannot control what their implicit biases are telling them or what they make them do, there has been research to suggest that ones implicit biases can change, and little things such as group interventions can help (Fiske 3). It is our job to really try to change and remove the hatefulness of this world. Most of the time, the people that are filled with this wrongful hate do not believe that they have to change. They do not realize that their actions and their feelings are wrong. Culture is a big influence of this as well. When you are brought up in a society that is centred around certain morals and values, it is human nature to believe and follow them. It is difficult to force people to go against their extreme morals, but it is still possible. It is proven, so all we need to do now is try to do exactly that. It is important to believe that we can. It is also important to have hope that although we are going through a rough patch right now, people can change, and our world does not have to be like this forever. There is not much we can do but wait, but at least there is hope.
On that 4th day of February, one of the subway riders uttered the words, “I guess this is Trump’s America,” but the brave Jared Nied responds to this and writes, “No sir, it’s not. Not tonight and not ever.” With everything going on in the world today, that is exactly the hope and optimism that we need, and hopefully that can inspire us all to believe in the goodness of the world and maybe make a difference.
Works Cited
1. Woodson, Thomas S. “Science’s Role in Reducing US Racial Tensions.” Issues in Science and Technology, vol. 33, no. 2, 1 Jan. 2017, pp. 1–3., ezproxy.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2077/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=44bb7795-6d49-4bd7-a08c-9797f3395dea%40sessionmgr4009&vid=2&hid=4213.
2. Haider-Markel, Donald P. “The Politics of Social Regulatory Policy: State and Federal Hate Crime Policy and Implementation Effort.” Political Research Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 1, 1 Mar. 1998, pp. 69–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/448830?ref=search-gateway:507725c6f387c87d999ee8ce07ad57e8. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.
3. Fiske, Susan T. “On Prejudice & The Brain.” The MIT Press, vol. 136, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–5. JSTOR [JSTOR], ezproxy.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2060/stable/pdf/20028100.pdf.
4. J. Kiger, Patrick. “How Hate Works.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 16 May 2011, science.howstuffworks.com/life/hate1.htm. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.
5. “Swastika Takedown: New York Subway Riders Tackle Nazi Symbols on Train (PHOTOS).” RT International, 5 Feb. 2017, http://www.rt.com/usa/376374-swastika-takedown-new-york-subway/. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.
6. Nir, Sarah Maslin. “Finding Hate Crimes on the Rise, Leaders Condemn Vicious Acts.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Dec. 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/nyregion/hate-crimes-are-on-the-rise-in-new-york-city.html. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.
7. Wildman, Sarah. “The Epidemic of Bomb Threats against Jewish Organizations, Explained.” Vox. Vox, 23 Feb. 2017. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.
8. Jta. “Hate Crimes against Jews in New York Have Doubled in 2017, NYPD Says.” Haaretz.com. N.p., 19 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 May 2017. <http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.772561>.
9. L., Brian. “The Left & Fake Hate Crimes: Liberalism Hits a New Low.” Townhall. Townhall.com, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 May 2017. <https://townhall.com/notebook/brianl/2017/02/21/the-left-fake-hate-crimes-liberalism-hits-a-new-low-n2288147>.
10. Levinson, Lauren. “Millions of Americans Participated in the Women’s March – Now, What’s Next?” POPSUGAR News. N.p., 29 Jan. 2017. Web. 12 May 2017. <https://www.popsugar.com/news/What-Women-March-2017-43040998>.
Amanda's Writing 