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I would appreciate feedback on this. Thank you.
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I will no longer use the terms hate speech and hate crime because I do not think those terms reflect the profoundly evil nature of those crimes, and why they are perpetrated. The Christchurch massacre has opened my eyes to what those crimes really are all about.
To determine what is the right term in reference to such crimes we have to have a proper understanding of what message those who perpetrate such crimes mean to send.
With rising white nationalism and fascism around the globe we have to dissect the purpose of those crimes and the ultimate aim. If we use the proper term for those crimes they will better signal to us future threats lay down the road.
Make no mistake about it. Tarrant wants more than 49 more dead Muslims. And all people who commit such crimes want more than the specific deaths of their victims. The aim is to inspire like minded people to copy these criminals, and to frighten the members of the targeted communities so that the targeted group will leave the communities, states, provinces, or countries they live in.
With rising white nationalism and fascism around the globe we must understand that these crimes are also committed to show support for those movements and, if those movements should be empowered enough to do so that they have support to socially cleanse, ethically cleanse, or to perpetrate genocide against the targeted communities.
I see all three of these as part of the same genre of crime. So let me explain each as I understand them. By social cleansing I mean an effort to frighten or formally punish members of a targeted class into assimilation and enforced social invisibility.
By ethnic cleansing I mean the aim of ridding communities, provinces, states, and nations of the targeted class, this may stop short of all-out genocide, but could involve internment, the creation of a reservation system or a forced deportation of members of the targeted class.
And we all know what genocide is: the targeted and systemic killing of all members of the targeted class.
These crimes are not merely about hate. And the right wing does appear to have made quite the equivocation out of the terms hate crimes and hate speech. “All crimes,” they say “are about hate.” That’s not actually true, but it has been successful propaganda against efforts to address these sorts of crimes.
We must also understand that sporadic hate crimes are not quite social cleansing, ethnic cleansing, or genocide, but they do have the terroristic hope of such things.
So from this day forward I will speak of these crimes for what they are:
Pre-social cleansing terrorism, pre-ethnic cleansing terrorism, and pre-genocidal terrorism.
These crimes put us on the road to state sponsored social cleansing, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. When we investigate these crimes and we talk about them in the media we must use language evoke the proper horror of these crimes. I think these terms do that.
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As I type, my husband and I are watching a documentary on the rise of right wing terror during the Obama administration. If these terms were used instead of “hate crime” we may have seen the Trumpists coming.
I am looking for feedback here, but if you want you can discuss this with me on Twitter @robertfr69