Hate Crimes

I recently (as in a few hours ago) heard this news, and through a family member of the victim. The family is waiting for the investigation to come to a close before notifying the press. Therefore, for privacy purposes I'm going to keep names and certain information confidential. 

Exactly two weeks ago, a 14 year old student became a victim of bullying at a middle school less than 30 minutes from here. The victim ties a turban to school and for this reason was targeted. The assaulters beat him to the ground during the five minute break after lunch at the school they attend. The resulting injuries include a broken nose, black eye, swollen and bruised jaw, possibly fractured cheekbones, and a bruised arm, back, and shoulder.

 He goes into surgery tomorrow morning.

Upon hearing this, I couldn't believe that such a disheartening tragedy occurred so close to home. I was appalled. Recent national crisis have pointed out that violent discrimination is still surging throughout even a country as forward-looking as the United States. However this proves that violent discrimination isn't just occurring in remote rural areas, or the crime-ridden urban scenes. It's occurring in the heart of the relatively wealthy suburbia, where the schools are remarkably diverse and most people's parents have college educations. This should theoretically lead to tolerance through both exposure and a more extensive and worldly knowledge-base. This bullying episode has undermined that idea completely. In and area like ours, middle schoolers radically discriminated against their peers solely because of a perceived religion. It's hard to express the magnitude of the unjustness. However we can only read this and gather a lesson - in order to be a cohesive and progressive society, we need to put forth full effort in stopping discrimination of all types. This cliche message sounds like a broken record; we all think to ourselves "of course discrimination is bad..." However its the little things that most of us don't notice that amass to overarching negative attitudes towards certain groups. In this case, the little things added up to a horrifying result in an environment remarkably similar to the one we all grew up in. 

There are thousands of parallels to this event in American and international history. Discrimination, unfortunately, is human nature. We do it on a subconscious level. From the overseas genocides of the 20th century to the Jim Crowe laws in America, to the everyday bullying that occurs all over schools, discrimination has always been a prevalent issue. However this event struck me as deja vu of the shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin that occurred less than three months ago. The targets were the same, turban wearers whom attackers have an irrational hate for. Six victims were killed in this shooting. The feelings of disgust I remember when I heard the news of that shooting came back to me when I heard of this bullying. Both times, I immediately questioned - why would anyone ever commit such a horrible crime?