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Epidemic
of passive prejudice promotes ignorance, violence This weekend, NBC aired “The Matthew Shepard Story.” Shepard was a 21-year-old political science student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured, robbed and left for dead outside of Laramie, Wyo. The movie was a shocking reminder that we live in a world of prejudice, ignorance and violence. Like James Byrd Jr., Matthew Shepard was killed because of his minority status. Shepard was a homosexual and Byrd was black. Because these two hate crimes happened within a year of each other, cries for hate crime legislation echoed through state and federal legislation. Texas governor Rick Perry signed hate crime legislation into law that extends its protection to include sexual orientation. But he met persistent opposition, mostly by his fellow Republicans. It is time to dispel a common myth that is a staple in the Republican rhetoric: “Why do we need hate crime legislation? All crimes are hate crimes.” This ridiculous stance is an execution of passive racism and homophobia. Sure, no one wants to admit they enjoyed hearing that Matthew Shepard was pistol-whipped within an inch of his life, tied to a split-rail fence and left to die in the cold. They don’t want to think about such a grisly death. They don’t want to know his entire face was covered in blood except where a path of tears had washed his cheeks. And no one wants to admit he was killed solely because he was a homosexual. All crimes are not the same. This crime was obviously not the same as an abduction and rape of a random child, or a shooting during an attempted robbery. But conservatives constantly want to distance themselves from gay and racial issues, and why not? They still have mega-stars like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond in office — two Republican senators with pro-segregation and anti-gay histories. A common argument heard in the gay issue is, “I don’t care what goes on in the bedrooms. I just don’t want to hear about it.” Sadly, a majority of us have chosen this mantra, but that is also passive prejudice. Of course, all Republicans are not prejudiced. But we cannot deny that this epidemic has trickled down from each generation to the next. So what isn’t prejudiced? Blind acceptance is the first step to living a non-prejudiced lifestyle. Cutting out the stereotypes and the intolerant rhetoric such as “all crimes are hate crimes” will work as well. Just because there isn’t a hate crime in the media’s spotlight doesn’t mean we can relax on protecting our minorities. Don’t let the deaths of Matthew Shepard or James Byrd Jr. be mere seasonal reminders of the dire need for acceptance and tolerance.
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