Less Heated Words .:. grubbykid.com

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Lynchings, by: 1882-1968 - graphic by grubbykid.com

Alright, so after calling all twenty Senators who did not cosponsor the anti-lynching resolution/apology, Pro-lynching Senators, I got some much deserved chiding for my rhetoric. Yet, those twenty should bear a political cost for 1) not voting for this resolution, and 2) not cosponsoring this resolution when they knew political maneuvering would give them cover in the form of the voice-vote. So, what's your stance? You can't weasel your way out of this by calling it a "unanimous vote" - there were all of six Senators on the floor last night - six! I don't think six Senators speak for the whole Senate. The current vote bamboozlement which the twenty are pushing is quite amazing, if showing a complete lack of spine and morals.

What I take issue with, is the notion that this is some trivial matter. Of course there will be demagoguery because of this resolution. Who in their right mind wouldn't cosponsor this resolution or press for a roll-call vote in order to let their position stand on the record.

But enough about demagoguery, let's get into the matter.

Look at the figure above: there were 3,446 reported lynchings between 1882-1968 - and those are the ones which were reported. This isn't a trivial matter; race relations in this country are horrible, and while this resolution is not a panacea (or would accomplish much) - apologizing and taking responsibility for actions is an important first step. These twenty Senators did not take responsibility for complacency of their own actions, the actions of the State - the sins of the Father so to say. In 2003 alone there were 3,032 Hate Crimes perpetuated on Black victims (see Table 5 - 2003 Hate Crimes Statistics (pdf)), with four murders of African Americas motivated by race; again, I'm sure this statistic is slightly underreported and under-attributed.

Of all the other hate crimes by bias motivation, attacks on African Americans outnumber any other bias category three-to-one. The next highest bias motivation is Jewish, then Anti-White (because of numerical superiority), and Anti Male Homosexuality. When I looked to Table 12 (Agency Hate Crime Reporting by State, 2003) I was surprised by the location of hate crimes: Pennsylvania and California were leading the pack, but states I thought would rank higher were quite low on the list.

Then I noticed that the states I thought would lead the pack (no doubt from my "elitist" upbringing) only had a few agencies actually reporting the statistics, and in some cases only had one agency report to the federal government. The report does not crunch the per-capita frequency of hate crimes - but it should.

What this all boils down to is responsibility: just compare the above map, with the map I created showing which states Senators did not cosponsor this bill:

20 non cosponsor Senators, by State

I ask, what's cause of this seemingly correlated event?

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