Sowing the seeds of hate in the USA

A recent Washington Post analysis of a University of North Texas study found a 226 percent increase in reported hate crimes in counties where President Donald Trump held a rally compared to those where he didn’t.

Few escape his verbal hate speech — Mexicans, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews, immigrants; women and gold star military families. Even people with disabilities are a target.

But is there a correlation between the president, who campaigned in part on a platform of unifying a country that was arguably doing just fine, and hate crimes?

Trump demands loyalty: if one kowtows to his childish egotistical demands, they’re in. But if a person doesn’t massage the Donald’s ego, or falls from favor for reasons that typically defy logic — common logic anyway — then they receive the same hate-laced Twitter attacks as lower mortals.

Loyalty is the expectation of a sovereign king, not a representative of the people. So is xenophobia — the irrational dislike or hatred of those who are different. In Trump’s case his xenophobia has another name. It’s called white supremacy, and it has led to a rise in hate crimes since Trumps election.

If the daily anecdotal evidence that Trump is emboldening hate and xenophobia isn’t clear isn’t clear enough, the data is, frankly, approaching the level of staggering.

Here are some numbers: according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation 2017 hate crime statistics report, hate crimes related to race or ethnicity increased 26 percent year over year between 2016 – 2017, up from 3,489 reported crimes to 4,131.

Religion-related hate crimes increased nearly 19 percent, while those related to sexual orientation rose nearly 5 percent. Gender hate crimes were the fewest in number, with 46 reported incidents, an increase of 15, or 32 percent.

Over half of hate crime offenders were white. Over 60 percent of hate crimes were against people verses property or society, the FBI study found.

Nationwide there were 8,437 hate crimes against persons reported in 2017. In Washington state alone there were 613. Of those, by far the greatest number involved assault — 206 simple or aggravated assaults. There were 183 reported intimidation incidents in Washington in 2017.

These disgraceful acts occurred in a variety of places — schools, streets and sidewalks, places of worship. But the highest number occurred at or near people’s homes.

But back to the issue of correlating the rise in hate crime to Trump.

An eye-opening study published in January on the Social Science Research Network titled “The Effect of President Trump’s Election on Hate Crimes,” asked that very question: is there an association between Trump’s election and the recent rise in hate crimes?

The study found that since the FBI began keeping hate crime data in 1992, with some seasonal variations, hate crimes remained relatively consistent.

There were, however, two highly significant spikes in hate crimes during the 27 years since data had been collected. The first was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The second followed Trump’s election in 2016.

Researchers concluded not only that Trump’s “divisive and controversial rhetoric” in advance of his election contributed to hate crimes, but that his election validated racism and hate-related attitudes for those who supported his views.

They called this the Trump Effect and found that nationwide it led to 2,048 additional hate crimes since Trump’s election.

“There is evidence to suggest that the Trump Effect may have contributed to a statistically significant uptick in the number of hate crimes rivaled by few others in modern American history,” the study said.

The study found that in counties with the highest numbers of Trump votes in the 2016 election also had the largest increase in hate crimes, and that “underlying these hate crimes are the lived experiences of marginalized communities.” That is communities of color and economic distress, to name a few.

The July issue of Rolling Stone included a feature of Democratic presidential candidate Peter Buttigieg, a 37-year-old white, married gay man, an Afghanistan veteran and mayor of South Bend, Ind.

In the article, Buttigieg (pronounced boot-a-judge) fields a question at a rally from an 11-year-old about bullying. He responds by telling the young girl that everyone is in some way different, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of, and that we should all show mercy toward our intimidators.

“Remember that there’s a person in there too, probably a person who’s been hurt in some way.”

Within that context Trump is mentioned. Instead of answering directly, the candidate offers a philosophical answer. He notes that when a person is being bullied, others are watching, and the bullied have a social obligation to rise above the bullying because, whether they know it or not, people will follow their courageous lead.

Asked afterward if he felt there was a correlation between Trump the rise in hate in America, Buttigieg said yes, there was.

“It matters what message comes out of the oval Office, what style of leadership is projected,” he told Rolling Stone. “And what we have right now is something that basically gives voice to bullies and gives them cover. This isn’t just a policy job, it isn’t an administrative job, it’s a moral job.”

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].