ABSTRACT
While other countries and peoples have experienced their own brand of hate crimes often in the after-math of colonialism, war, and social upheaval, this chapter focuses on “hate crimes” in the United States utilizing its unique paradigm of chattel slavery. With that goal in mind, an initial examination of colonialism and slavery in America is helpful toward illuminating the social dynamics of hate crimes and groups targeted by them. To dismiss slavery as a significant contributor to the legislation of hate crimes in the United States is to deny American history and lack a clear understanding of its import, however tedious that may be. Slavery as an institution in the United States was not comparable to that of other New World countries. Laws regarding miscegenation, education, and public access developed in the United States maintained their social exclusion for hundreds of years, including much of the post emancipation era, leaving an indelible stigma on black Americans. African slaves in America were demonized, depicted, and legislated as subhuman beasts-childlike, yet deserving of fear, loathing, punishment, and worse. They were considered intellectually capable of only the most rudimentary tasks. The consequences of this situation were laws established in the foundling United States that required an institutionalized, socially accepted, dehumanization of black people in order to maintain the profitable status quo for dominant white society, both during and after slavery.
