opinions & letters
Hate is on the Rise
and the Pennsylvania
Legislature Must Act
BY JAMES ELAM, IV AND SHOSHANA SCHILLER
O n June 7, 1998, three men — two of them
avowed white supremacists — lynched
James Byrd, Jr., a Black man, in Jasper, Texas.

After beating him, they brutally and barbarically
killed James by dragging him 3½ miles behind
their truck before dropping his body in front of
an African American church.

Just a few months later, in October 1998,
Matthew Shepard, a gay college student,
was beaten, tortured and left to die tied to a
barbed-wire fence. The year before James
and Matthew were murdered, legislation to
expand and strengthen the existing federal
hate crimes law was proposed in Congress
but did not pass.

However, the murders of James and
Matthew, motivated by hatred, led to the
eventual passage of the Matthew Shepard
and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention
Act almost 12 years later. The act extended
existing law to include hate crimes based on
gender, sexual orientation, gender identity
and disability, and strengthened the existing
federal hate crimes law.

Since the passage of the HCPA at the fed-
eral level, Pennsylvania inexplicably has not
enacted a comprehensive hate crimes law
that encompasses crimes based on sexual
orientation, gender, gender identity or dis-
ability, despite efforts to do so.

While a more comprehensive hate crimes
law was proposed in 2019 by state Rep. Dan
Frankel and state Sen. Larry Farnese, the
bills were never taken up for a vote. In that
same time, the number of reported hate
crimes in Pennsylvania rose dramatically,
up 98% from 2019 to 2020. And, as docu-
mented by the Anti-Defamation
League, in 2021 Pennsylvania
had the highest incidents of white
supremacist propaganda distribu-
tion of any state in the country, by
a wide margin.

Across the country, in 2020, the
number of hate crime murders
was higher than it has been since
before the HCPA was signed into
law. Hate crimes against Black
people rose more than 43%
between 2019 and 2020 and
against Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders 61%. Antisemitic incidents
rose to an all-time high in 2021, a 34%
increase over 2020. Hate crimes based on
gender identity rose 18% in 2019 and another
19% in 2020. In Wyoming, where Shepard
was murdered, hate crimes were up 260%
between 2019 and 2020.

We know that hate is rarely confined to
just one group. The tragic racially motivated
killing of innocent shoppers in Buffalo was
foretold by a writing that attacked both
Black people and Jews. White supremacists
openly strike out not only against people of
color but also against members of the gen-
der-queer community.

It is clear, now more than ever, that it is time
to address Pennsylvania’s weak laws against
hate. This is not a discussion of policy but
of basic humanity. The Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania has a motto: Virtue, Liberty and
Independence. Those words ring hollow if
many of our fellow residents live in constant
fear of the growing problem of hate crimes
being committed against them in an environ-
ment where their chosen government refuses
to enact laws to protect their lives.

We can do better, we should do better
and we must do better to push back against
the growing threat of white supremacy and
hatred. The Pennsylvania Legislature must
act. JE
James Elam, IV and Shoshana Schiller are
co-chairs of the Black-Jewish Alliance of the
ADL. James Elam, IV is the managing part-
ner of Elamental, a multidisciplinary agency
focusing on technology, media, sports and
social action. Shoshana Schiller is an envi-
ronmental attorney in the Philadelphia area.

CRT Revisited
I was pleased to see Fred Pincus’ opinion piece (“Where Do
Jews Fit Into Critical Race Theory?”, May 26). Many on-target
issues are raised in this piece (such as Jews as middlemen
minorities and meritocratic standards for Jews versus Blacks
and Hispanics). Among the smaller issues, Pincus’ definitions
of equality versus equity would have been better served if
taken from a dictionary.

My main concern, however, is with the argument over
whether CRT is good for Jews. I don’t believe it is good for
anyone, except those of right-wing persuasions. The prob-
lem lies in the title itself (and, worse, the abbreviation), and
many of the definitions ascribed to it.

CRT originated in the mid-1970s in the writings of American
legal scholars concerned that many of the advances of the
civil rights era had slowed or even begun to move backward.

Accordingly, then, we should be advocating for an effort to
shift the purposes, scope and delivery of education to pro-
mote a greater understanding of the lives and experiences of
all Americans, not just those who are “like us.”
Derrick Bell, whose work gave rise to CRT, was once asked
about CRT and replied, “I don’t know what that is. To me, it
means telling the truth, even in the face of criticism.” What
happens in the absence of common sense reasoning is the
co-opting of important ideas by political and community
leaders wishing to destroy these ideas for their own aspira-
tions. We handed the opposition a three-letter target; they
fired away. We made it easy.

The story needs to be less about racism and race, and
more about justice and equality, fairness and truth as we
seek to provide the real story of history in America. Then
this instructional movement will be good for us all, including
the Jews.

Frank L. Friedman
Philadelphia Stopping Iran
Since 1979, the theocratic government that is Iran has pub-
licly and repeatedly proclaimed its primary foreign policy
goal: the murder of the Jewish population of Israel (“A Plan B
For Iran?”, June 2).

It has not yet acted on its antisemitic genocidal goal for
only one reason: It has not achieved nuclear capacity — yet.

Neville Chamberlain’s belief that a piece of white paper —
what today is called “the Iran deal” — could appease or
deter pure evil — whether by Hitler then — or the Jew-hating
mullahs now — is the clearest example of the likely fatal
myopia of President Biden and his cadre of advisers in the
State Department.

The only plan that can work to end Iran’s murderous
nuclear ambition is for Israel and those clear-thinking coun-
tries that are not willfully blind to evil is to destroy Iran’s
nuclear capacity once and for all, including those individuals
responsible for it. JE
Richard Sherman
Margate, Florida
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