A Hate Crime?

A couple of days ago a story broke that there was a 'hate mail' incident at a small Christian college not too far from where I live. It was interesting as Thing1 also attends a small Christian college not to far from where I live - just the other end of Chicago.

When this story broke I jokingly suggested to the Wife that it would be really funny if it turned out that the 'hate mail' originated with a minority student out for attention or trying to get other students in trouble with the school. After Jesse Jackson showed up to grab his share of the spotlight this thought popped up more and more.

So today then it came out that a black female was the originator of the mail I laughed. Not that I was right but that her motive was to convince her parents that this small Christian school was "unsafe". We visited 3 different small schools and the one thing that these schools bragged about was the incredibly low crime rates. Even simple theft was non-existant.

So at the end of the day the student is charged with felony hate crime and disorderly conduct. I hope that the school is considering a civil suit against her to try and recover costs incurred with locking down the campus and relocating students.

What bothers me is the whole concept of 'hate crimes'. Why should one race be treated differently than another? Isn't that what the civil rights movement was about? That all men were created and should be treated equally? Why should a white person, who calls a black person racist names and attacks him be charged differently than a black man, who calls a white man rascist names and attacks him? It doesn't make any sense to me.