ABSTRACT
The most frequent victims of hate speech and crime, according to the available statistics, are African Americans and other minorities of color, and gays and lesbians who are “out” and make no secret of their sexual identities. National statistics on hate crime and figures compiled by social scientists suggest that hate speech is increasing, particularly on college campuses. Competition also intensifies when the numbers are nearly equal, as they are becoming in the national population mix. Racism is said to correlate inversely with social and educational class, with the highly educated being less apt to be racists of the rawest sort, and less well-educated working-class people more so. Quantitative issues of a different sort arise in connection with the broad social dimensions of hate speech. Another way to look at both the qualitative and the quantitative side of racial depiction and abuse is by means of what has come to be called the social construction thesis.
