Source: GlobalPost.com

South Africa’s constitution was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and the only nation in Africa to allow same-sex marriage, but clearly hate doesn’t consult the law. In the same town where 24-year-old Thapelo Makutle recently won a “Miss Gay” pageant, he was murdered and mutilated in what most are calling a hate crime.

The Associated Press reports:

Thapelo Makutle was found with his throat cut Saturday morning in a room he rented in Kuruman, a town in northwestern South Africa, police said in a statement. The motive of his death is unknown and the case is being investigated as a murder, police said.

However, Jabu Pereira, the spokeswoman of the local gay rights group LEGBO, said Thursday that the perpetrators didn’t steal anything from Makutle and his body was mutilated in a way that indicates it was a hate crime, an extra charge that leads to greater punishment. Makutle’s body was found under a blanket with his throat cut and tongue removed, Pereira said. His genitals were also cut off and put in his mouth, witnesses told Pereira.

“The community is in a state of trauma, they are shocked,” Pereira said. “The community gathered last night and we just stood with the family.”

Makutle was a leader in the local gay community, Pereira said. Among other things, she said, he organized the Miss Gay Kuruman pageant.

Javu Baloyi, spokesman of the Commission for Gender Equality, condemned the killing.

“It was such a barbaric act,” said Baloyi, whose government agency promotes the rights of gays, lesbians and other South Africans.

South Africa’s constitution bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but gays here still face discrimination and violence.

The Global Post also reported that Shaine Griqua, director of LEGBO Northern Cape, said in a statement that two men followed Makutle back to his rented room, broke down the door and attacked him. Griqua said Makutle’s throat was so badly slit, it was near decapitation. This happened supposedly after getting into an argument with the men over his sexual orientation.

It’s odd that the police aren’t willing to call this a hate crime when the supporting evidence seems clear, but maybe they know (or don’t know) something that isn’t being reported. Regardless, this is a tragedy that can’t be condoned. What makes a person believe they have the right to take another person’s life simply because he or she lives a homosexual lifestyle? It is absolutely senseless.  Our hearts goes out to the victim’s family in this case and we’re hoping they find the killers who are, apparently, still at large.

Alissa Henry is a freelance writer living in Columbus, OH. Follow her on Twitter @AlissaInPink.

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Source: IBtimes.com

A new breakthrough in the Trayvon Martin case could be a positive indication that George Zimmerman won’t get off for killing the teen boy as many suspect. As you know, the FBI has been conducting their own investigation into the shooting death that occurred Feb. 26, and ABC reports that the bureau plans to pursue a hate crime charge against the neighborhood watchman.

Zimmerman has already been charged with second-degree murder which could garner a maximum sentence up to life in prison if he’s convicted. With the hate crime charge, his sentence could be escalated to the death penalty. That is, if the prosecution can prove he intentionally went after Trayvon and shot and killed him because he is black.

Calls to 911 and the last conversation Trayvon had before being killed have already proven to much of America that Trayvon was followed and gunned down out of racial prejudice, but Zimmerman stands by his story that he shot the teen in self defense, after he punched, kicked, and knocked him to the ground. According to the Orlando Sentinel, there is a wealth of new evidence in the case against Zimmerman, including a data download with more than 60 CDs, Zimmerman’s phone records, and dozens of witness statements and interviews, 18 of which are from Sanford Police officers. There is also video from the 7-eleven store where Trayvon reportedly purchased Skittles and Arizona iced tea and from a clubhouse in retreat at Twin Lakes, the townhouse complex where the teen was killed.

To combat the hate crime charge, we can expect Zimmerman’s defense to harp on a photograph that recently surfaced which is reportedly Zimmerman’s mother in the arms of her grandfather, who is black. His mother also testified at a bond hearing that Zimmerman once risked his own personal safety to mentor a black child in a dangerous neighborhood because he didn’t want to abandon him. Essentially, it’s the “but I have a black friend” defense.

Do you think the FBI will successfully charge Zimmerman with a hate crime?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Source: Newsone.com

Roughly 20 black men, women, and children are said to have been involved in a brutal beat down that occurred in Mobile, AL, Saturday and left the man seen here, Matthew Owens, in critical condition. Four days later, the circumstances surrounding the altercation are still a bit fuzzy.

Many reports on the attack have labelled it a hate crime while others have called it retaliation for Trayvon Martin since one of the men involved in the fight was heard saying, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon” when the beating ended. Mobile’s mayor Sam Jones says that quote has been blown out of proportion and new details suggest that Owens may have actually been the original aggressor in the altercation. One person told WPMI that Owens was spewing racial slurs at people on a basketball court and even pulled out two kitchen knives. Another witness quoted him as saying:

 ”He’s going to lynch all the black kids, he hates black n***ers, he hates that we moved on this street.”

It’s these new details that have stopped investigators from looking into this beating as a hate crime, Mayor Jones says.

“Wait for the facts as far as we’re concerned right now,” he told Fox 10. “But, I would caution people to not jump to conclusions right now. This is really very divisive in communities throughout the country, and I don’t think we have any reason to be divisive here because I don’t see any evidence of that.”

Though Owens is awake now and says he doesn’t know why he was attacked, at the time, he was left unconscious with bleeding on his brain after the fight and witnesses say he was beaten with bricks, bats, and cans of paint by the mob. His wrap sheet doesn’t do much to clear claims that he may have been the aggressor in the case. He’s been booked on charges of assault, domestic violence, harassment and public intoxication in the past.  Despite whatever motivation may have led up to the incident, the brutality of the attack is rather extreme. Still, no one has been arrested thus far.

What do you think about this situation?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Bossip.com

Tyler Perry got very personal with his Facebook fans over the weekend and detailed an incident on his page when he was pulled over for what he considers to be “driving while black.” Outrage over Trayvon Martin’s case sparked Tyler to share his own story of racial profiling involving the Atlanta police, and in looking at his own situation and Trayvon’s, Tyler said racial profiling should be considered a hate crime by the FBI.

Here’s part of what Tyler’s note said:

A few days before President Obama was supposed to speak at my studio, I was leaving the studio, headed to the airport. Most times when I leave the studio I have an unmarked escort. Other times I constantly check in my rearview mirror to be sure that I’m not being followed. It’s a safety precaution that my security team taught me. As I got to an intersection, I made a left turn from the right lane and was pulled over by two police officers. I pulled the car over and put it in park. Then, I let the window down and sat in the car waiting for the officer. The officer came up to the driver’s door and said that I made an illegal turn. I said, “I signaled to get into the turning lane, then made the turn because I have to be sure I’m not being followed.” He said, “why do you think someone would be following you?”

Before I could answer him, I heard a hard banging coming from the passenger window. I had never been in this position before so I asked the officer who was at my window what was going on and why is someone banging on the window like that. He said, “let your window down, let your window down. Your windows are tinted.” As I let down the passenger window, there was another officer standing on the passenger side of the car. He said, “what is wrong with you?” The other officer said to him, “he thinks he’s being followed.” Then, the second officer said, “why do you think someone is following you? What is wrong with you?”

Before I could answer the officer on the passenger side, the one on the driver’s side had reached into the car and started pulling on the switch that turns the car on and off, saying, “put your foot on the brake, put your foot on the brake!” I was so confused as to what he was doing, or what he thought he was doing. It looked like he was trying to pull the switch out of the dashboard. I finally realized that he thought that switch was the key, so I told him that it wasn’t the key he was grabbing. I reached down into the cup holder to get the key, not realizing that the key had a black leather strap on it. As I grabbed it they both tensed up and I dropped it as I heard my mother’s voice from when I was a little boy….

The officer on the driver’s side continued to badger me, “why do you think someone is following you?” I then said, “I think you guys need to just write the ticket and do whatever you need to do.” It was so hostile. I was so confused. It was happening so fast that I could easily see how this situation could get out of hand very quickly. I didn’t feel safe at all. But one officer stopped his questioning and said, “we may not let you go. You think you’re being followed, what’s wrong with you?” At this point, I told him that I wanted to get out of the car. I wanted the passersby to see what was happening.

As I stepped out of the car another officer pulled up in front of my car. This officer was a black guy. He took one look at me and had that “Oh No” look on his face. He immediately took both officers to the back of my car and spoke to them in a hushed tone. After that, one of the officers stayed near his car while one came back, very apologetic.

I said all of that to say this: do you see how quickly this could have turned for the worse?

Tyler went on to say that he obviously knows there are many great police officers and patrolmen that don’t stop people solely based on their color but that doesn’t change the fact that racial profiling is still very much alive, despite any strides that have been made. He also called attention to another case that he said is just as tragic as Trayvon’s.

Another case that I have been screaming at the top of my lungs about, also in Florida, is the case of Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos, a young black man and a young Mexican man. Eight years ago, in Naples, FL, they were both put in the back of Deputy Steve Calkins’ police car and never heard from again.

They were never arrested, never brought to jail. They were put into the back of Deputy Calkins’ car and never heard from again. And to this day Deputy Steve Calkins is a free man.

I guess it’s time to march in Naples now.

RACIAL PROFILING SHOULD BE A HATE CRIME INVESTIGATED BY THE FBI!!!

That way local government can’t make the decision on whether or not these people get punished.

Unfortunately, we’d still have to trust that the FBI wouldn’t turn a blind eye to these incidents.

Do you think racial profiling will ever be put on the same level as a hate crime?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Source: Gulf Live

Justice has been served in the case of James Craig Anderson, the 47-year-old black Jackson, MS, man, who was run over and killed by a 19-year-old white teenager last June. Deryl Dedmon, the driver of the pickup truck that was used to murder Mr. Anderson, plead guilty to the charges and was given two life sentences for his crime.

The attack occurred in the parking lot of a motel around 5am on June 26. Surveillance video caught Dedmon and six other teenagers screaming “white power” and racial slurs while punching Anderson before Dedmon accelerated his truck and ran over the man. The teenager admitted that he and his friends had been partying in a small town outside the city when he suggested they find a black man to harass and went to Jackson because of its majority-black population. In court, Dedmon expressed remorse for his actions.

“I do not ask y’all to forget, but I do ask y’all to forgive,” he said. “I wish I could take it all back, I was young and dumb, ignorant and full of hatred. I chose to go down the wrong path.”

Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill Sr. told Dedmon it’s too late for apologies.

“Your prejudice has brought shame upon you and placed a great stain on the state of Mississippi,” he said in court. “Whatever excuse you may offer for what you have done, forget that. There’s no excuse that you can offer for the family of Mr. Anderson or to your fellow Mississippians who have to try to reconcile the horrible damage you have caused.”

The fate of the other teenagers involved, which includes two girls, will likely be decided today when results of a Justice Department hate crime investigation are aired in court, the New York Times reports. The family has filed a wrongful death suit against all seven of the teenagers involved in the crime as well.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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I do not have the words to fully express the sadness, grief and flat out anger I am experiencing over the senseless death of Trayvon Martin.  But that only pales in comparison to what his family might be feeling.

Martin, a 17-year old Black teen, was gunned down by George Zimmerman, a 28-year old White Hispanic man in the Central Florida town of Sanford late last month. Zimmerman, who was the self-appointed neighborhood watch, claims that he’d shot and killed Martin after the teen allegedly started an “altercation.” But Martin’s real crime was being a suspicious black male in the wrong community at the wrong time.

If you haven’t listened to the 911 calls from Zimmerman and the various perspectives, which were revealed on Friday, you can listen to them here, but be warned, they are a hard listen. In one tape, Zimmerman, who had spotted Martin from inside his parked car, tells the dispatcher that there had been a few break-ins lately, and now there was another suspicious guy in his Twin Lakes gated community. He describes the SUS as a young black male wearing a hooded sweatshirt.  He looked like he might be on drugs and “up to no good,” he says to the dispatcher.  Later, he says that the SUS is retreating in the other direction from his vehicle. He then exits his car and follows the SUS. The dispatcher tells Zimmerman that it is not necessary to follow him. But Zimmerman, frustrated, had already lamented that: “These a**holes always get away.”

In another tape you can hear what appears to be a muted bang followed by a young man in the distance crying repeatedly for help and then a loud pop that silences the wailing completely. Other callers reported hearing the same thing as well and described for the police dispatchers the end result: Martin, lying on the ground, dead.  Later it would be revealed that Martin was far from a SUS  - just an unsuspecting teenager, who was visiting his father and just so happened to be walking back from the store with a can of sweet tea and a bag of Skittles to share with his younger sibling. For that, his life was silenced. And 28-year-old Zimmerman, who claims he was acting in self-defense, has yet to be arrested or charged with a crime.But as much as this story pains me, this post isn’t about the vicious murder, instead it’s about one of the witnesses: a 13-year old Black boy named Austin, who just so happened to be out walking the family pet and observed what happened. He and his family tells the Miami Herald:

“I don’t know that it was the person on the [ground] who was screaming, but to me it sounded like a kid who was crying. It was a yell for help, and I think it was Trayvon. Austin wasn’t sure if the person was in a fight or had slipped and gotten hurt. Austin’s boxer puppy got off the leash so the boy went chasing after the dog and lost sight of the scene for a moment. Then, he heard a gun go off. He ran home and told his sister to call the police. The boy, who is black, has been rattled ever since. He feels angry and disconcerted, and wonders whether he’s at risk too. That people can stereotype like that makes you scared, he said. Austin’s mom said he’s been acting out in school and seems mad all the time.”

As gut wrenching as it is to read about the death of Martin, it is equally as heartbreaking to think about what this witness must be going through. Not only did he see a murder in his front yard but has to live with the “what if” questions, the fears of his own safety and the confusions of how this, in the time of our first Black president, could happen? Prior to the murder, he probably was a normal teenager, close in age to the victim. He lived in a neighborhood that was overwhelmingly white (including Hispanics who classify themselves as white), therefore considered safe away from all the urban crime we hear about in inner city Black communities. He probably saw Zimmerman “patrolling” the neighborhood on a few occasions. He might have even had a conversation with him, maybe found himself too under the surveillance of his neighbor’s watchful eye.  He probably wondered if those interactions were just the result of an overzealous busy body or a precursor to the paranoia of a bigot.

He probably has those same questions about his friends he met within his diverse neighborhood.  And the teachers and staff at his school too. Prior to witnessing the murder of a kid close in age and hue to his, he probably believed in a colorblind society and was taught to respect every one of all races.  But watching the video of a bewildered little Austin as he speaks about how sometimes people get stereotyped and how he fits into this stereotype as the person who got shot, you can almost see the trepidation in his eyes, as if he is pondering what if that had been him. And maybe one day, it might be him.

Tyler C and Dharun R - Source: moviespad.com

While Dharun Ravi, now 20, thought he was just playing an innocent practical joke on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, it was decided today in court that it was not a joke, but indeed a hate crime. Ravi captured Clementi’s sexual encounter with an older man and showed it on a webcam to countless classmates in 2010.  Devastated by the fact that he was displayed by his roommate to so many strangers, Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge soon after finding out. Now this childish act could possibly cost Rhavi his freedom, as well as the opportunity to stay in the United States.

The jury came down with the verdict after 12 hours of deliberation, and Ravi will be sentenced on May 21, facing up to 10 years in prison, as well as possible deportation. Ravi is an Indian citizen who spent the majority of his life in the U.S.  He is currently free on bail, but had to turn over his passport. And while Rhavi and his attorney were hoping to push the idea that it was just a misguided prank by an immature freshman, Ravi’s own instant messages and emails around the time of the crime were the nail in the coffin: “Roommate asked for room till midnight. Went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” Those type of statements, along with the fact that Ravi tried to tape Clementi’s sexual encounters with the same man not just once, but twice–but he was stopped when Clementi found out what was going on–didn’t help him at all.

Ravi was convicted on ALL 15 counts, including two counts of bias intimidation based on sexual orientation (a hate crime),  invasion of privacy and tampering with evidence and witnesses. Last year, Clementi’s family said they didn’t want the punishment for Rhavi to be too harsh. They spoke out today after the verdict was read.

“The trial was painful for us, as it would be for any parent who must sit through and listen to people talk about bad things that were done to their child.”

While I hope they don’t deport Ravi, and that in the end, he doesn’t wind up with all 10 possible years in prison, I can understand why someone would think that sort of punishment would be necessary for him. We clearly live in a time now where bullies are pushing young people way too far (to other acts of violence or suicide), and not much is being done about it. Therefore, if this can open some young person’s eyes to the consequences of their own actions…then sadly, so be it.

Do you think he should have been found guilty? Was it a childish prank gone wrong, or was he acting out of hate?

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(New York Times) — The family of a black man run down and killed in a motel parking lot in Jackson, Miss., filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Tuesday against the group of white teenagers they say is responsible.  The lawsuit, filed in Hinds County Circuit Court in Jackson, depicts the death of James C. Anderson as a racially motivated attack and outlines an evening of drinking that culminated with a caravan of teenagers from a largely white suburban county driving 16 miles to Jackson intent on harassing African-Americans.  “We want to send a message to people who want to use race as a reason to target someone,” said Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who joined Winston Thompson III, the family’s lawyer, in filing the suit.  “It appears this group went out to target a black person,” Mr. Dees said.

Read More…

(New York Times) — No one disputes that James Craig Anderson, a middle-aged black family man with a quick wit and a demanding sense of style, was robbed, beaten and then run over by a group of white teenagers in a motel parking lot early one morning in June.  But as the case builds — charges against the young man accused of driving the Ford pickup that hit Mr. Anderson were raised to capital murder on Friday, and the F.B.I. is now involved — significant questions remain.  Was the killing of Mr. Anderson premeditated racial violence? An act indicative of a deep cultural divide?  Or was the behavior of Deryl Dedmon, the slight, blond teenager who could be facing the death penalty, simply an anomaly born of anger, alcohol and teenage stupidity, as some close to the case suggest?  Beyond those questions, many here are asking whether Mr. Anderson’s death will prompt a deeper discussion of race relations in a state that has struggled mightily to move beyond its past.

Read More…