At one of the most diverse campuses in the nation, UC Riverside’s Hate/Bias Response Team has worked for the past three years toward creating a hate-free campus community. Made up of students, faculty, and representatives from a number of student services programs, the HBRT supports victims of hate incidents and hate crimes, and educates the campus about what hate crimes are and what students can do to fight against them.
Started in the summer of 2006, the HBRT convened to develop protocols for campus reporting of hate crimes and hate incidents. Student Development Educator and HBRT member Jen Miller said, “There wasn’t an event that got us started, a lot of people often think that we’re responding to some thing that happened. Instead, we wanted to be proactive and have students be aware of these resources.”
Blog
May 4, 2009 - 9:00pm
Patchogue Theatre buzzed with excitement as the community came together April 20, 2009, for an evening of performance dedicated to unity and inclusiveness, five months after a violent hate crime shocked the small community in Suffolk County, New York.
May 3, 2009 - 9:00pm
Shenandoah, PA: After last week’s acquittal of two Pennsylvania teenagers charged with the fatal beating of Luis Ramirez, July 12, 2008, the civil rights group Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has called on the U.S. Justice Department to intervene.
“It is time for the Department of Justice to step in and bring justice to the Ramirez family and send a strong message that violence targeting immigrants will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” said MALDEF Interim President Henry Solano.
Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar says the civil rights division is reviewing evidence in the case.
April 27, 2009 - 9:00pm
By Brian Lau
As the fourth annual “Not In Our Schools” month in Palo Alto comes to a close, we wanted to share some of the inspiring activities from students across the district. Gunn High School and Palo Alto High School each dedicated a full week of events to promote acceptance and diversity, with daily activities focusing on students as “upstanders” — those who do not simply stand by in the face of injustice, but act to make change. Here are few highlights from both campuses.
April 27, 2009 - 9:00pm
EDITOR’S NOTE: The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on legislation that would strengthen federal hate crime law to include sexual orientation and gender identity. In this essay, Not In Our Town Network member Jim Hennigan reflects on his beliefs about hate crime laws.
A Crime By Any Other Name Nominally speaking, I hate “hate crime” laws.
By Jim Hennigan
It wasn’t until May 2007 that I gave much thought to the notion of so-called “hate crime” legislation and why people feel so strongly about it. That was when Sean Kennedy was killed in Greenville, South Carolina, the town I called home. More significantly, May 2007 was when it seemed like everyone who followed the local news formed an opinion about “hate crime” laws.