2 Sentenced for Hate Crimes in Arkansas
I wanted to share this tiny news blip today as my story for the week. This is my logic as to how it connected to the course on Human and Civil Rights:
-The legal definition of a hate crime, according to Merriam-Webster's Legal Dictionary is: "A crime that violates the victims civil rights and that is motivated by hostility to the victim's race, religion, creed, national origin, sexual orientation or gender."
One of the things that interested me with regards to this horrendous case, is that it has been documented
(http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/10/29/anti-latino-hate-crimes-rise-for-fourth-year/ , for example)
that there has been an significant rise in hate crimes against Latinos in the United States. I responded recently to Ana's posting on anti-immigration laws as a impinging on the rights of the same population target. This got me turning some mental wheels. Having been discussing wether there is any grounded
reality/importance/weight to the socially constructed rights so many texts 'enshrine', this story takes my mind to the fact that the political discourse in any given society, wether in the concrete realm of signed law or in the intentions/directions politicians are willing to take might have a very real effect on the behavior of such societies.
Basically, I ask if the climate of anti-(Latino)Immigration in U.S. politics can be connected to the rights abuses experienced on the ground by that population not only at the hands of both federal/state authorities but also by the 'dominant' American population.
Now some more apropos questions could be: Does the existing conception of H+C Rights really affect this situation at all? Do laws trying to curb on this kind of violent, discriminatory behavior rely on rights discourses to justify a particular legal category of crime?
Peace.
Hey Esteban!
ReplyDeleteI really do agree with all you are saying with the review of this article. However, in this case, I don't think that the conception of human and civil rights really affects how society is already shaped. People do and think many times as a group rather than as individuals and this creates many problems for instance, the constant anti-(Latino)immigration issue in the US. The media is famous for stereotyping racial groups and thus society is shaped by it. I don't believe laws that try to curb these acts rely on rights discourses to its entirety..
I agree, I don't think that it is the key to try to stop such behavior, laws could be framed under any discourse.
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