Extreme vs. Mainstream

We have spent a good amount of time in class and in our blog topics about the difference as well as the connection of mainstream ideology versus extreme ideology. This differentiation of views and actions is sometimes very apparent when it is related to hate crimes, but at times, the two almost blend together and it can be difficult to discern whether or not actions and speech are intentionally hateful in nature.

In most cases of a hate crime, especially in the media, the report is seen as an extreme action. When someone sees a murder, lynching, batter or assault, the message that comes across is that an extremist is behind the violent action. This is definitely the case in some situations, especially the big time media covered cases, but hat about the smaller cases with individuals not connected to what we perceive as an extremist organization?

One perfect example of hate crime in the extreme light, would be some of the violent acts carried out by the author of Authobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, Frank Meeink. Meeink talks about the unprovoked attacks of people in nightclubs, homosexuals, and transients. This is a classic example of an extreme hate crime that you might see on the six o’clock news. Even though these crimes did not result in the death of a victim, they were committed by a skinhead leader, which automatically puts and “extreme” spin on the crime itself. Another example of an very extreme hate crime is the James Byrd Jr. case. James Byrd Jr., an African American man, was dragged behind a pickup driven by three men believed to be white supremacists, until he hit a culvert that decapitated him. This lynching by dragging gained a huge amount of media exposure.

Some of the more mainstream crimes fueled by hate, are crimes that the courts and juries have a hard time prosecuting due to the low level of hate that is involved in the crime itself. If the plaintiff is not part of a supremacist organization, did not shout racial epithets during the act of violence, or did not have any underlying racially motivations, it can be difficult to discern if the crime is a hate crime, or if it is just a white on black or white on Hispanic crime. This is where mainstream title comes into play , and where cases can sometimes be under-prosecuted and serious offenders are let off of the hook from time to time. Mainstream is in my opinion just a cop out of a serious crime, because the attacker may not have a shaved head or a swastika tattoo. Hate crime is a serious offense, and I think that the differentiation of mainstream and extreme in the case of hate crimes is unacceptable.