PLATFORM : Crimes of Hate

(Hate crimes) depend on what sort of perceptions are driving you forward. For example, the pattern of targeting persons perceived to be Japanese escalates to Japan-bashing. If you feel generally secure, that sort of thing doesn’t affect you. It depends on what pushes your button.

A recession tends to impact the entire environment. If the economy gets worse and that becomes a political issue, you’re going to have politicians exploiting it. If the economy is fine and people are not concerned about jobs, they exploit some other issue.

We have a lot of rich strands in our community. Those strands, in order to form a fabric, need to be woven together. And the kind of thing that holds that fabric together requires some organization. We can use understanding and tolerance, but there are really nuts-and-bolts things to it as well. So we have a lot of pretty threads . . . diversities are enriching, but on the other hand if they’re not woven together, they are very tribal.