Panelists Discuss Hate Crime Laws

A motorcycle-riding Howard University law professor and proponent for hate crime legislation came to UNC on Tuesday to talk about the face of racism in the United States.

Professor Frank Wu, the author of "Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White," acted as keynote speaker on a panel with three other featured guests for the forum, "Hate, Violence and the American Way: Legal Responses to Hate Crimes."

The James M. Johnston Scholars, Globe and the School of Social Work sponsored the forum.

Wu began with three primary points of discussion. He shared a personal story of what life was like growing up as an Asian-American, talked about the assault of a young man of Asian descent and discussed individual acts of violence.

Wu said he spent his childhood and much of his adulthood among many well-meaning, although racial stereotyping, fellow Americans. He was born in Cleveland and spent his entire life in the United States, but he was not always treated like an American.

"They placed me in their geography of race," he said. "When you assume one person's answer is everyone's answer, well, that's racial stereotyping."

In 1982, Wu and many other Asian-Americans were alarmed at the assault of 27-year-old Vincent Chin. Wu said two frustrated autoworkers, who connected their unemployment with the popularity of Japanese cars, targeted Chin because of his race. They beat Chin with a baseball bat until his skull cracked in two, Wu said.

The judge who heard the trial let the perpetrators off with three years of probation and a fine. This was during an era before the term "hate crime" had meaning, Wu said.

After Wu's 30-minute speech, the three panelists each took 10 minutes to respond to Wu's speech with their own comments about hate crime legislation.

The panelists were Jon Sanders, director of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy; Carl Ross, community relations manager for the N.C. Human Relations Commission; and John Boddie, president of the N.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. UNC law Professor William Marshall acted as moderator.

Some of the panelists said they thought hate crime legislation distracted attention from the problem at hand because it did not address or change the underlying causes of bigotry. "I don't like the term 'hate crime.' I think it's very misleading," Boddie said. "All it does is provide an enhanced penalty."

Boddie went on to say that instead of spending energy trying to enact hate crime legislation, people should put pressure on local courts to show their support for hate crime victims.

The panel discussion was the eighth of the Johnston Annual Issues Forum, organized each year by a committee of senior Johnston Scholars.

Wu said the purpose of his talk was not to convince the audience of what is right or wrong but to promote discussion and thought. "I am here to provoke you to think for yourselves, not persuade you to think as I do."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.