Hate crimes in America have become a major threat and have even killed people. Since 1991 there have been over 100,000 hate crime incidents reported in the United States. In 2007 alone 7,722 incidents of hate crimes were reported, that’s a 7.8% increase from the year before. Hate crimes are the slandering, bullying, aggression towards, or harassment of a person or persons in which it is based on religion, race, sexual orientation, or their way of life. Anti-Semitism and Racism have not only shaped American but also the world.
Anti-Semitism is a term used to describe prejudice against or hostility towards the Jewish people and other ethnicities/groups. An enforcer of anti-Semitism is Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was born April 20th, 1889 in Braunau Am Inn, Austria. In 1930 a depression hit Germany and Hitler promised to get rid of Jews and Communists in Germany and to reunite the German speaking part of Europe. Two years later in July of 1932 the Nazis received about 40% of the vote and became the strongest party in Germany. President Paul von Hindenburg later appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany and once the president died in 1934 Hitler had already had control of Germany.
In World War II approximately 12,692,000 people including Jews, homosexuals, communists, mentally retarded and handicapped people and gypsies were killed in 13 years. Many were killed in extermination camps, concentration camps, and death marches.
Extermination camps were made solely for killing. Thousands of people would be sent to extermination camps by train. Once they arrived all of their belongings would be taken from them. They would later all be moved to a field thinking that they were getting showers but were later moved to a gas chamber and killed.
Concentration camps on the other hand would first sort the people by being fit to work and being unfit to work. The unfit would be immediately killed by gas chamber or being shot. Those strong enough to work got their heads shaved, were cleaned, and got a number tattooed on their left arm. They had to wear striped uniforms and were forced to do manual labor, and get experimented on. They usually died from starvation, illness, or being put into a gas chamber or being executed.
Death marches occurred when Germany frantically moved the prisoners out of the camps and moved them into camps inside of Germany to be forced laborers. The prisoners were forced to march long distances in the bitter cold, with little or no food, water, or rest. Those who fell behind the rest of them were shot. The Nazi’s usually killed a large group of people before, after or during the marches. During one of the death marches including 7,000 Jewish prisoners were moved on a ten day march. 700 were murdered during the march and those who were still alive were forced into the water and shot.
Another example is racism. Racism is the belief that because you are a certain ethnicity that you are less superior or more superior. African Americans were and are main victims of racism. Laws were made to keep black people “in there place” and people have risked their lives to end it.
Jim Crow Laws were laws that lasted from 1876-1965 and were made to keep white and black people “separate but equal”. Many stores had signs on the window stating “WHITES ONLY”. Many things ended up being segregated including restrooms, restaurants, schools, water fountains and even the military. Lynching was the hanging of someone without the right of the law. It’s usually enforced by a mob of people and can sometimes be avoided.
Racism was solved in several ways, Martin Luther King Jr. was a major part of the resolution and protests and marches. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. He was an activist and spoke opinions on civil rights and lead non-violent protests. He was very popular and had protests that could bring 100,000 people to the streets. On April 4, 1968 MLK was assassinated Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Some of the protests and marches done were the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a boycott in which a number of black people got in trouble for not giving up their seat to a white person. The after shock of this was that all of the African Americans didn’t ride the bus until they changed the segregation rule. The boycott lasted 385 days and King’s house was bombed because the situation was so tense. The March on Washington was after President Kennedy proposed a new civil rights bill people decided to show their support, so the civil rights groups organized the March on Washington, 250,000 people showed up from all around the nation.
Racism and anti-Semitism are alike in many ways. Certain groups were being targeted based on their religion and race. They’re also alike by having a group of people being superior than the other. They are different in a couple ways also. Racism is based on a variety of different groups. Another difference is that racism isn’t as violent as anti-Semitism and racism is lead by more than one main figure person unlike anti-Semitism.