Hate that is based on race, religion, and sexual orientation can exist within any cultural rich society. When this type of hate fuels a person into taking violent actions upon those they hate, it is called a hate crime; a topic which the American public is seriously concerned about. It has been a widely discussed subject on the media, and often debates of whether or not a crime should be attributed with hate crime are the center for discussion.
Many people would argue that a hate crime epidemic in the United States even exists. Some, of course, would consider it to be of epidemic proportions. Those that oppose crimes of hate also oppose other prejudices. A hate crime is a criminal behavior that is motivated by racial, religious, ethnic, gender, sexual preference, or any other type of prejudice. When a person hears the word prejudice, he or she might think it only refers to the racial prejudice often found between Those with light skin and those with dark skin. Prejudice, however, runs much deeper then a person's color. Prejudice is found between gender, sexual orientation, religion, cultural and geographical background, and race.
People have discriminated against others based upon these attributes from the beginning of time. Prejudice has become a complex problem in society today and much of the world's history is based upon such hatred. In the 1600s, the Europeans and early English used Africans as slaves and treated them as if they were animals. "Colored" people were not even allowed to use the same drinking fountains as white people until the mid-1900s. Hitler and his men killed over five million people because they were Jewish or were not their definition of "normal." The Ku Klux Klan still exists today and openly professes its hatred towards the Jewish and colored people. Society is riddled with such hatred based upon peoples" benefits and origins and it seems millions are fighting each other for no relevant reason at all.
