NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Racial violence Introduction The issue of racial hate is becoming more and more acute in contemporary America. And this is happening at the same time, when we are being told that the our multicultural society is becoming more tolerant, since the cultural diversity is being enforced now... Apparently, something is rotten in the kingdom of Denmark, as the famous saying goes. Despite our government's best efforts, the racial crimes continue to occur with an alarming persistence. Can we really blame it on the fact that there are still too many rednecks in this country, who failed to embrace the shining truth of diversity? Maybe it is our educational system, which promotes bigotry?
But the answer would be negative. Since the time kids enter elementary school, they are being taught about how to respect other people's cultural differences. Still, it does not prevent them from starting to hang out with the kids of its own kind, from very beginning. In colleges we can witness the same situation young people are clearly in favor of having their campuses to be as much racially homogeneous, as possible. And this does not depend on the racial affiliation, in every particular case. Black people are as much subjected to racial suspicion as Whites, which tells us that the root of racial crimes is buried much deeper, than the popular opinion is willing to admit.
In order for us to come up with the suggestion of what would be the best way to combat racial intolerance, we need to posses a really good understanding of the issue. To do this, we need to learn about the cases of racial violence. Once we are able to find a certain pattern in the racial crimes, we will be able to come up with the better recipe of how to deal with them. Also, we need to be more open minded about the issue and to understand the simple fact that the people of all ethnic affiliations can be subjected to the racial intolerance, and not just the representatives of minorities, like our media try to portray it. In this essay we will analyse a few, the most striking cases of racial intolerance, as well as the cases that only appear to be such on the surface, so that it would help us to understand this subject a little better. (1) One of the most striking examples of Judicial system failure to address the issue of racial violence, is case of Vincent Chin. Being born in Taiwan, Vincent was brought up in America.
After the heated exchange of insults with his White coworkers Ronald Eben's and Michael Nitz, Vincent was beaten to death by them with the baseball stick. But the murder did not take place, because of some domestic dispute, as Eben's' and Nitz' lawyers argued. During the court procedures, it became known that it was motivated by the racial hate. Apparently, the factory where all three worked, was closing down, because the company decided to move its production lines to Japan. After being laid off, Nitz and Eben's could not find anything better to do then to get drunk and to find the escape goat - Vincent, simply because he happened to be in the area. After having confused him with filthy Jap, the drunken couple decided to take a revenge on him, because they believed that it is the invasion of Asians into the U.
S. , which deprived them of their work. Vincent was being repeatedly hit in the head with the baseball stick. The exceptional cruelty of this crime became especially obvious, after it was being revealed that the attackers continued to hit Vincent, well after he had lost consciousness. Usually, in the cases like this, the prosecution automatically moves to describe the crime, as the First Degree Murder. Yet, in the case of Vincent's murder, the prosecution only asked to classify this crime as Second Degree Murder. But even this did not seem to be soft enough for the judge Charles Kaufman, who insisted on downgrading this case as manslaughter.
Because of various circumstances, which became revealed during the hearing, such as the fact that Chin was also a drug pusher and had a criminal history, while Nitz and Eben's had served in the army with distinction, the court sentenced the two accused to 3 years of probation and ordered them to pay $ 3. 000 as a fine. This, of course, enraged the Asian community in U. S. , because the punishment was grossly inadequate of the crime. It was being reported later that the judge Kaufman had spend sometime in Japanese concentration camp, during the Second World War and that he had a personal aversion to the people of Asian descend. This, of course, should have been taken into account, but it was not. Kaufman's judgment was clearly affected by his personal feelings, which is strictly forbidden.
The murder of Vincent Chin shows that our Judicial system is still flawed by the fact that it allows the application of double standards. The newly arrived immigrants, will always find themselves disadvantaged, when it comes the legal procedures. At the same time, the case of Vincent Chin became so known to the public that the different political groups had tried capitalizing on it. Some of them, go as far as to suggest that there should be no White judges, allowed to head the court proceedings, when it comes to dealing with the expressions of racial intolerance.
This, of course, cannot be considered as valid opinion. While talking about American nation as truly united, such opinions help to promote racial secularism, among citizens, which would prevent them from seeing themselves as the Americans first and everything else later There is no doubt that the harsher punishment should have been applied to both Eben's and Nitz, but if we take this issue further, it will appear that our whole Judicial system would have to be reformed. So far, it is innocent, until proven guilty, and not the other way around. Our judges are free in making their decisions, but everything comes with the price. Sometimes they make mistakes, whether it is appropriate to run into the generalizations, is more political matter then the matter of insuring the justice. (2) The case of Wen Ho Lee also relates to the fact of alleged racial intolerance, but this time it is the American government that was being indited with it. Wen Ho Lee was born in Taiwan in 1939, but after he moved to America, he became one of the most prominent nuclear scientists in this country.
After having worked for 20 years for the University of California, at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he was being charged with espionage, on behalf of China in 1999. This led to his subsequent imprisonment, while the investigation was taking place. Yet, the prosecution failed to prove that Lee was guilty of anything, but the felony of having improperly downloaded the classified information. After being released, Wen Ho Lee declared that the real reason for his imprisonment was the fact that he was of Chinese origin. This happened in time when the civil rights movement became a very powerful factor in American political life. Therefore, his case instantly became the topic of countless media reports.
Yet, in my opinion, this case is a good example of how the importance of some minor incident gets blown out of proportion. Basically, Wen Ho Lee is still being considered as the suspect, but the government lacks the proof to nail him down. He admitted of having met with Chinese undercover agents, who asked him to sell the American classified information, on many occasions. He failed twice, while undergoing a lie detector test. But this seem to be of very minor importance to those who can only talk about possible link between Lee's nationality and his imprisonment. It is only logical that the government went after Lee, because it obtained information that someone was passing secrets to China.
Given Lee's left-wing political convictions, it made him a logical suspect. In my opinion, the case of Wen Ho Lee helps us to distinguish between the real and imaginary acts of racial intolerance. For whatever the injustice that he had suffered from, Lee already received $ 900. 000, as the part of settlement, which was offered to him by the government. And this is even before Lee was being fully acquitted. He was invited to the numerous TV shows, where he kept complaining about the settlement being not as substantial as he expected. We can say that in his case, the justice has been fully served, if not over served.
But there are people, who were not so lucky. (3) Does the name Mellisa McLaughlin says anything to us? Has her name become associated with the ugliness of the racial hatred, like it happened in case of Wen Ho Lee or Vincent Chin? The answer is negative. Bob Kelly in his article More Wonders of Diversity describes her murder in very graphic details: Melissa McLaughlin: a young White female, kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered in Charlestown, South Carolina in 1992 by seven Blacks. After raping her for several hours, her abductors skinned her alive in a tub of bleach, before finally killing her. How many of you heard this story on your nightly news, or in your newspapers? (Kelly).
It was being reported that, while dragging her to the place of murder, the abductors kept yelling kill the cracker, kill the cracker. The most important thing is that her murder was absolutely spontaneous, because she did not have any affiliation with her killers. They simply wanted to kill cracker and, just like Vincent Chin, Mellisa happened to be in the wrong place in the wrong time. There is no doubt that this crime was racially motivated. This is very clear to anyone, who hasn't completely lost the ability of analytical thinking.
Yet, her murder was being only briefly reported by the local media, as if nothing happened. There were no bleeding hearts, across America and no holding of candles. As a matter of fact, the trial of Mellisa murderers was being moved to another county, to avoid racial prejudice, as many people in Charlestown were getting increasingly weary with the fact that the Judicial system is more concerned about protecting the murderers than helping the justice to be served. As the result, only 2 of Mellisa's killers were being found directly involved in her murder and were being sentenced to 8 years in prison, with the sentences for the rest of accomplices ranging from 2 to 5 years in jail. Given the brutality of the murder, such sentences cannot be considered as being anything else but the slap in the face to Mellisa's friends and members of her family. Also, as it was being mentioned, Mellisa's' horrific murder did not make a headlines.
We all remember the story of alleged rape of the Black stripper, by the lacrosse players. The media would not stop talking about it for weeks, even though that...
Free research essays on topics related to: racial violence, judicial system, racial intolerance, degree murder, ho lee
Research essay sample on Racial Intolerance Ho Lee
