If people took the time to learn about people that are different from them then maybe they would learn to respect a person's individual differences and not hate them because of it. A hate crime does not necessarily have to be a physical or violent act; words and threats can be just as damaging on an emotional level as a physical blow is to the head. Laws have been passed to prevent these actions; however, every year there are different hate crimes that committed against different groups running into the thousands and those are just the reported ones. "Racial prejudice motivated more than half the 7,876 hate crimes committed in 1999 that were reported to the FBI."" .
The most common variety of hate crimes is committed against blacks, numbering 3,679 or 37.5% of all victims.4 The earliest forms of hate groups often led these attacks. Some of these groups are still present today, such as, the Aryan Nations and Ku Klux Klan; however, today because of their lack of popularity amongst broadminded people, hate groups have changed the way they present their ideas and beliefs. Most hate groups try to pass off their outlandish beliefs as a truth of religion by using quotes from the Bible and other religious texts and twisting them to fit their image. Hate is something a person is taught either through subtle or not so subtle ways. After years of this "brainwashing- a child can become and adult who would do anything for what they now believe is the truth. In the muddle of information an entire race can be downcast. "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance- it is the illusion of knowledge."" .
The second highest form of hate crimes is committed against the Jewish. What most people remember about Jewish persecution is the Holocaust. During these years Hitler's genocide program was responsible for the massacre of over 6 million Jews. Jews were pulled from their lives, separated from their families, humiliated, forced to work in concentration camps and then were killed when they became obsolete workers.
