Sexual harassment represents not only abuse but also discrimination, since it discourages women from working in traditionally male jobs, distracts them from doing their best work, and deters them from seeking promotions. Alarmingly, recent revelations suggest that sexual harassment may be reaching epidemic proportions in the military. At the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 19 women trainees have filed complaints of rape or sexual assault against almost 20 noncommissioned officers. One drill sergeant has been charged with rape, forcible sodomy, assault and making threats.
The sex scandal at Aberdeen has focused attention upon sexual harassment throughout the military. In an Army survey in 1995, 4 percent of all female soldiers said they had suffered from an attempted rape or sexual assault within the previous year - nearly 10 times the incidence of rape and sexual assault outside the military. And a telephone hotline for women throughout the armed services received some 4,000 calls in its first week. Five hundred were evaluated as sufficiently serious to require further investigation.
And, even in an agency often called upon to investigate hate crimes - the Federal Bureau of Investigation - there have been reports of discrimination and abusive treatment of minorities.
In June, 1988, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas found that 1) Hispanic agents suffer disparate treatment in the conditions of their employment; and 2) these conditions affect their promotional opportunities in an adverse manner. Among the incidents cited in the decision was an Hispanic woman in training who was told she "looked too ethnic."5
In a case brought before the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Denver Office in 1986, an African-American agent was found to have been the victim of racial harassment. Among other incidents:6
(b7)li>The agent had a photograph of his two children on his desk. It was defaced with the face of an ape placed over his son's face.
- A toy scuba diver doll with its face, hands, and feet blackened by a marking pen was left in a container of water on the agent's desk.
- Pictures of an African in native dress, the bruised face of a black man, and a black man and a white woman were all placed in his mail slot at the office.
- Invitations to office functions with the words "don't come" written over them were also placed in his mail slot.
- Bogus phone messages were left for him.
- And his dictation was erased when he was away.
The prejudice and raw hatred revealed in these incidents is only one element of a combustible mixture of social problems that produces hate crimes.
Although some violent crimes are decreasing, hate crimes and arsons are increasing. Extremist movements are gaining in numbers and prominence, and their targets range from minority groups to the government itself. Public debate over social policy issues - from affirmative action to immigration to welfare - unfortunately is used by public officials to divide us from one another. Social problems of all kinds are exacerbated by the economic anxieties prompted by corporate downsizing, stagnant wages, and vanishing health coverage and pension benefits. In such an environment, hate crimes persist as expressions of hatred, alienation, and an effort to intimidate and demean those perceived as a threat to one's own status.
It is often the case that symptoms themselves must be treated before illnesses can be cured. Hate crimes are a national emergency requiring national action.
Our nation's leaders took an initial step in recognizing the urgency of the problem with the passage in 1990 of the Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA) and its reauthorization in 1996. It requires the Department of Justice to compile data on crimes that"manifest prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity and to publish an annual summary of the findings. The law helps local, state, and national law enforcement authorities coordinate their efforts against hate crimes. And its very existence makes a powerful statement that the United States of America celebrates the diversity of its people - and will not tolerate violent acts of intolerance.
Six years after the initial enactment of this law, it is even more urgent for Americans to work together against the epidemic of ultra-violent behavior motivated by bigotry. This report is the first major comprehensive assessment of the hate crime problem in the United States. It is an effort of a task force of concerned national groups working together under the auspices of the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a non-profit organization that conducts research and education on civil rights, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of 180 national organizations representing persons of color, women, persons with disabilities, older Americans, gays and lesbians, labor organizations, and major religious groups, committed to the enactment and enforcement of civil rights laws.
This report is an effort at public education and advocacy. We believe that hate crimes are a more serious problem than is generally recognized. And we maintain that this problem requires a unified and determined response by national and state leaders in government and business, by law enforcement agencies at every level, by civic, religious, and educational organizations of all kinds, and by ordinary citizens in their communities, on their jobs, in their houses of worship, and in their schools.
Once and for all, now and forever, it is time to extinguish the flames of hatred in America.
