The Violence of Hate: Understanding Harmful Forms of Bias and Bigotry

243 Pages·2016·3.802 MB·English

by  Jack Levin and Jim Nolan

THE
Understanding Harmful Forms of Bias and Bigotry
FOURTH EDITION
JACK LEVIN
Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict
Northeastern University
and
JIM NOLAN
West Virginia University
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Levin, Jack, 1941– author. | Nolan, Jim (James J.), author.
Title: The violence of hate : understanding harmful forms of bias and bigotry / Jack Levin,
Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict, Northeastern University, Jim Nolan, Department of
Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University.
Description: Fourth Edition. | Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. | Revised edition of The
violence of hate, 2011. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013460 (print) | LCCN 2016022559 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442260498
(cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442260504 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442260511
(electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Hate crimes. | Racism. | Antisemitism. | Toleration.
Classification: LCC HV6773.5 .L48 2016 (print) | LCC HV6773.5 (ebook) | DDC 305.8--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013460
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Dedication
From Jack Levin to
Dan Steven Victoria
Benjamin Max Bryson
Jaden Matthew Segal
Ethan Samuel Segal
Gavin Finn Segal
From Jim Nolan to
Darrell Lamar Claybrook
Dion Del Claybrook
Reese Carrie Claybrook
McKenna Nolan Lausch
Cora Nolan Lausch
Felicity Spring Thompson

Contents
Preface ix
About the Authors xiii
1 Perspectives on Hate and Violence 1
Hate, Prejudice, and Discrimination 1
Transforming the Terms 1
Prejudice versus Discrimination 2
The Role of the Individual 3
Justifying Hate Violence 5
The Influence of Significant Others 6
From Individual to Institutional Discrimination 7
Constructing Group Identity 8
Who Controls an Individual’s Group Identity? 9
Changing Group Identity 10
The Privilege of White Identity 13
When Stereotypes Turn Nasty 15
Is Hate on the Decline? 18
Underestimating Bigotry 19
Unconscious Bias 20
The Difference Between Small and Insignificant 22
Hate Crimes are Vastly Underreported 23
It Takes Only a Few Bad Apples 25
Conclusion 26
2 Explaining the Violence of Hate 29
Environment, Heredity, and the Power of the Situation 29
The Environmental View—Blaming the Victim 29
The Hereditary View—Blaming the Victim 34
A Situationist View of Hate Violence 41
Threatening Situations Can Inspire Hate 45
Hate Crimes Against Muslims 45
Hate Crimes Against Immigrants 47
The New Anti-Semitism 49
A Continuing Racial Gap 52
The Obama Factor 54
Bashing Gays and Lesbians 56
Hate Crimes Against Women 57

Conclusion 59
v
vi Contents
3 Hate Crimes 61
Motive Matters 61
The Hate Crime Statistics Act 62
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program 62
NIBRS Hate Crime Data 63
Why Now? 66
Pros and Cons of Hate Crime Laws 67
Hate Crime Laws Today 68
Federal Civil Rights Statutes 71
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act 72
State Hate Crime Statutes 72
Hate Crime Laws and the U.S. Constitution 75
Policing Hatred 77
When the Police Are Viewed as Perpetrators of Hate Violence 77
When the Police Are Viewed as Victims of Hate Violence 81
Explaining Bias in Policing 82
Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice: A Sociological Perspective
on Police Violence 83
The Traffic Enforcement Analogy: A Sociological Explanation 86
Policing Hate Crimes 91
Seeing Hate Crimes 94
Intension and Extension of the Term “Hate Crime” 94
Classification of Hate Crime Incidents 97
Why Is This Distinction Important? 101
Hate Crimes in Europe 102
The Roma in Europe 103
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Violence 104
Conclusion 105
4 A Typology of Hate 109
Hatemongers 109
The Role of Organized Hate 109
Hate from a Distance 110
Biblical Bigotry 111
The Militia Movement and White Supremacy 113
Expanding the Influence of Organized Hate 115
Mass Murder in the Name of Hate 117
Dabblers 118
Getting a Thrill 118
Being Defensive 121
Getting Even 124
Contents vii
Sympathizers 127
Behind Closed Doors 127
An Eliminationist Anti-Semitism 128
Cultural Hate 128
Culture Transcends Generations 131
Spectators 131
The Failure to Act 132
Middleman Minorities 134
Middleman Minorities in the United States 135
The American Version of Spectatorship 136
Conclusion 138
5 The Benefits of Bigotry 141
Protest by Proxy 147
Psychological Advantages 151
Enhancing and Protecting Self-Esteem 152
Reducing Uncertainty 156
Economic and Status Advantages 157
Getting the Dirty Work Done 157
Eliminating Opponents 160
Maintaining Political Power 167
Conclusion 167
6 The Production of Rebels, Deviants, and Other
Decent People 169
The Power of the Situation 169
When Normal People Do Abnormally Nasty Things 169
Fighting Spectatorship 170
Intergroup Contact 172
The Impact of Competition 172
Reducing Hostility Between Groups 173
Structuring Opportunities for Cooperation 175
Follow the Leader 177
Obeying Orders 178
The Role of Leadership 180
The Impact of Deviance 182
When Rebels Rebel 182
The Importance of Empathy Across Groups 183
Human Agency: The Ability to Create “Good” Situations 186
The Agentic Perspective 187

Collective Efficacy in Neighborhoods 189
viii Contents
Neighborhood Agency and Collective Efficacy 190
Conclusion 192
Appendix A. Anti-Hate Websites 195
Appendix B. Division E—Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.
Hate Crimes Prevention Act 197
References 207
Index 223
Preface
The fourth edition of The Violence of Hate represents a major revision. Not
only have we added a significant number of pages and updated statistics and
examples in many places, but we have also expanded our discourse to include a
much broader range of victims and perpetrators.
At the same time, we continue to emphasize the commonalities joining
rather than the differences separating those in society who have been victimized
because they are different in socially significant ways. Under a single concep-
tual framework emphasizing the power of situations, we explore important, yet
perplexing, forms of hate and prejudice, including racism in American society
following President Obama’s election; the historical and present-day occurrence
of anti-Semitism; anti-Muslim sentiment in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks
as well as the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels; renegade Christians
acting as servants of power; disenfranchised Roma—or Gypsies—systematically
denied access to basic human essentials such as health care, employment, and
education; gay and lesbian youths taunted and teased and victimized by sadis-
tic violence; assaultive behavior directed at immigrants during periods of high
unemployment; violence perpetrated against women around the world; and
people with disabilities whose rate of violent victimization measures three times
that of individuals in the general population.
The new material in this edition includes a chapter dedicated solely to
explanations of hate violence and an expanded chapter on hate crimes in which
relations between the police and the Black community are explored, beginning
with the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri. Along with many new and updated exam-
ples, this edition also includes several new sections that pull from the disci -
plines of sociology, social psychology, and psychology to develop an integrated
perspective on the circumstances of hate violence and the reasons we have not
always been effective in stopping it.
As in earlier versions of The Violence of Hate, we take the position that
support for the violence of hate originates not in the ranting and raving of big-
oted extremists at the margins of society but in the tacit approval of ordinary,
even decent, people who are located squarely in the mainstream. Relatively few
Americans actively dabble in bigotry, and even fewer are hardened hatemon-
gers. But millions of individuals who would not dream of committing a hate
crime nevertheless contribute to the cause of prejudice by sympathizing with
those who do perpetrate violent attacks. In addition, there are countless num-
bers of otherwise virtuous people in society who remain passive spectators to
bigotry because they benefit in either a psychological or socioeconomic sense
from the status quo. Although lacking in virulent prejudice, these spectators
also lack the courage required to pay the price for doing the right thing. For
many, spectatorship is all too comfortable.
Some observers have suggested over the years that blatant acts of big-

otry and bias have declined to the point where they no longer threaten the

ix