Hate Crime Realities Do Not Match Rhetoric
By Joe Dana
CNS Intern
11 July, 2000

(CNSNews.com) - Evidence suggests that the slaying of an eight-year old boy in northern Virginia last month was a racially motivated crime. One witness says the murderer shouted racial slurs during the attack and, according to published reports, police found a written note at the suspect's hotel room that contained a threat to kill white children.

While many in the nation's capital discuss tolerance for minority and homosexual groups, the Virginia murder of Kevin Shifflett, a white child, is drawing little attention as a hate crime.

In 1998, more than one-third of the victims of race-related hate crimes were white, according to FBI records. The reality causes many to believe that the roles of racism are reversed more often than acknowledged.

"Someone, somewhere along the line, has made the decision that European-Americans are discarded as victims. For whatever political reasons, I don't know," said Louis Calabro, President of the European-American Issues Forum.

While a Hate Crimes amendment sits in a congressional conference committee for revision, a letter of frustration from Calabro's group sits in the office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL). It is a request to dispel the "constant and continuous propaganda to portray European-Americans in the worst light," according to Calabro.

The letter cites numerous examples.

When President Bill Clinton invited the families of hate-crime victims to the White House in April, no one was on hand to speak about victims who had been targeted because they were white. The family of Matthew Shepard was present, not because they are white, but because their son was the victim of a homosexual-related hate crime. According to the FBI, in 1998, there were nine racially motivated murders committed in the US; five of the victims were white.

"I don't think society is ready to see us as victims yet," says civil rights activist Anastasia Guarnotta, who works in Boston on cases that involve European-American victims. She says she fights not only hatred, but also lethargy, from people who don't acknowledge anti-white violent crime.

"They (civil rights advocates) don't come out when there are European-American victims," Guarnotta says. "I don't care if we are black, white or gray. We have to address the people's needs."

White House press aide Jake Siewert couldn't remember if Clinton had ever addressed the problem of hate-related crimes against white Americans.

"I'm well aware where race or sexual orientation is the issue, but I'm not aware of incidents where they happened because someone is white," Siewert said.

In reference to current hate-crime laws and how well they protect white Americans, Siewart said, "I would (have to) check to see if the legal statute covers that."



It seems, however, that few people in the White House, as reflected by Siewart's response, have talked about the idea of criminal racism initiated by minority ethnic groups

"I've been around the president for seven years," Siewart said. "So I would know if that issue came up or not."

Siewart's observation fuels the idea advanced by some experts that politicians don't talk about what is not politically correct.

"Politicians and civil rights activists have to stop playing politics. I think many see it, and they are all talking about it under the table," Guarnotta said.

Guarnotta and Calabro both believe politicians view race-related hate crimes as a "poltical tool," as Calabro put it, instead of a problem that hurts white Americans the same way it does other races. "My people are getting shoved into a corner," Guarnotta said.

Other areas Calabro cites in his letter as evidence of white bias are police training videos that consistently depict white men as perpetrators and vague FBI records that distort the race of the perpetrator in hate crimes to suggest more European-Americans commit crimes than is actually accurate.

The FBI however, says Calabro is "on the wrong track" with his accusation. The argument between Calabro and the FBI on this sensitive issue has been alive for many months, according to an FBI spokesperson.