Analysis Of What's So Bad About Hate By Andrew Sullivan

628 Words3 Pages
Although people use the word “hate” so freely in their everyday conversations, do they really know the true meaning of this word? “What’s So Bad About Hate” by Andrew Sullivan provides a detailed analysis of what defines hate, and in particular, hate crimes. They are distinct in that they focus on a particular characteristic, although they tell about the victims, as in sexism, racism, and homophobia. They tell little about the Offenders, and why they commit crimes. He says that in reality, an equal feeling of disloyalty, and that unfortunately accompanies every feeling of loyalty; one cannot exist without the other. Although many people may believe that they harbor no hatred towards other races, as soon as someone bumps into them in the street or cuts them off at an intersection, they automatically notice his or her race. He goes on to relate the controversy caused by a group of firefighters when one of them mimicked the dragging death of James Byrd, a black man dragged by a pickup truck for three miles down a road in Texas, during a Labor Day parade. These heroes may not have intended to display any form of racism, however, their actions may fall under the hate category if hate is considered to be an unconscious activity as well. Sullivan continues by…show more content…
Offenders can be a combination of any of these three classifications. However, there is an issue with blanket statements because each hate is an individual case, as every individual has had a different life and different incentives. Ironically enough, the most severe Offenders of “hate crime” are victims themselves. Sullivan comes to the conclusion that hate crime is an unnecessary classification under “crime’ and shouldn’t carry a different sentence than crime itself. He ends with a general statement that hate can only be overcome by the success of the victims, and their being unaffected by “ignoring the bigot’s
Open Document