If you are among the residents of the United States of America with a pulse, then you cannot feign ignorance regarding the alarming number of hate-inspired racial incidents - especially those of a violent nature—that run diametrically opposite to the value system this country purports to embrace. Each week, in particular since the emergence of Donald Trump as a candidate and subsequently his ascendency to the presidency, exposes the racial hatred in America that we all know exists, but choose to leave unspoken. Yet when the facts on the ground scream “race motivated me,” how on earth can the question be “Is this a hate crime?”

To set the bedrock for our conversation here, a “hate crime” is defined as a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence. Now, we all possess prejudices. Most of us have the maturity, tolerance and discipline to restrain and refrain from both voicing and acting out those prejudices for the sake of communal peace and tranquility. Generally speaking, this is a premise that the vast majority of us embrace and engage in, whether we want to admit it or not. Many people pride themselves as being an “outspoken” personality.

Using the “outspoken personality” trait as an excuse to offend others or dislodge others from the right to exist in a peaceful state reveals an internalized evilness that cannot be admired; as a matter of fact it should repulse. Acceptance and living as a repulsive person is a sickness. That sickness in the form of speech many times evolves into a repulsive action. Racial hatred combined with the repulsive speech usually amounts to racial violence that can only be deemed a hate crime.

What does it take for this country to be honest about its inherited sickness? A white male, Jeremy Christian began hurling epithets at two young women, including one wearing a hijab, witnesses said on a commuter train in Portland, Oregon. Ricky John Best and two other men were stabbed after stepping in to help. Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, died at the scene. Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, was transported to a Portland hospital and is recovering. 35-year old Christian, yeah, a real Christian, was arrested and is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, attempted murder and intimidation — the state equivalent of a hate crime. He made an initial court appearance earlier this week. Federal prosecutors said it’s too early to determine…whether the incident meets the prerequisites of a “Hate Crime.”

Too early? Really??? How long does it take to know that telling you to “get out of my country” is based in racial or religious disdain?

Hate crimes are pretty easy to spot. They’re the kinds of crimes of violence - including speech - that are directed to toward people that aren’t directed toward people who are similar to the perpetrator. Knowing that, those with the authority to prosecute hate crimes too often do everything in their power to NOT charge perpetrators with hate crimes.

As long as those invested with authority are protected from the consequences of wrongdoing, they’ll keep doing wrong. Body-camera video of the July 2015 incident showed then-officer Ray Tensing, 27, shooting Samuel DuBose, 43, in the head during a traffic stop after pulling over DuBose for a missing front license plate on his vehicle. Dubose was Black, Tensing is white; the judge in the case halted this second trial because of media coverage, but more to the issue of racial motivations for why Tensing did what he did, the judge won’t allow as evidence the Confederate flag t-shirt he was wearing under his uniform. The judge ruled that introducing the t-shirt would be “too prejudicial?” Too prejudicial…really? GTFOH!!!

Hell, it took 2 ½ years for Cleveland to fire the officer that shot and killed 12-year old Tamir Rice in 2014…but, he wasn’t fired for killing Rice. He was fired for inaccuracies on his job application! Really? …anything to avoid accountability for wrongly killing Black people in America. That’s not “American Exceptionalism,” that White Exceptionalism!

Speaking of Ohio, the non-violent assault on Blacks in America is just as egregious. Ohio's policy said it illegally erased voters from registration rolls and unlawfully disenfranchised minorities and poor people who tend to back Democratic candidates. Well, the justices on The Supreme Court—with the new Trump addition of Neil Gorsuch—will review a U.S. Appeals court ruling of the Ohio's policy ran afoul of a 1993 law called the National Voter Registration Act, which Congress passed to make it easier for Americans to register to vote. A Reuters analysis last year found that in Ohio's three largest counties, which include Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, voters were struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods under the policy. All of that is simply code language that says, ‘Blacks generally tend to vote Democrat, so if they don’t vote, then whites who espouse racist policies will get elected…and make your struggling existence in America a existence of survival.’

The town of Basking Ridge changed its zoning ordinances in order to deny the town’s Muslims from building a mosque. Yet another example of the more powerful ruling segment of U.S. government employs the law to subjugate a less-powerful group of citizens.

Referring back to "hate crime," the term was coined in the 1980s by journalists and policy advocates who were attempting to describe a series of incidents directed at Jews, Asians and African-Americans. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines hate crime (also known as bias crime) as "a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin."[1] Washington and Oregon were the first states to pass hate crime legislation in 1981; today, 49 states have hate crime statutes. States vary with regard to the groups protected under hate crime laws (e.g., religion, race or ethnicity, and sexual orientation), the range of crimes covered, and the penalty enhancements for offenders. Most states and large cities now have hate crime task forces coordinating across several levels of government and working with community organizations.

A recent study of racial disparity here in Washington, DC found that over 70% of Black students in DC have zero white classmates. That’s institutional construction of walls, isolation and barriers where Blacks make up 49% of the population compared to 36% white. That’s not the children’s fault; yet they will grow up wondering why they cannot find common ground with people of other races. That’s a crime within itself perpetrated by adults in the dominant group of America, white Americans.

Laws protect the perpetrators of racial crimes, including hate crimes, where they should be prosecuting them. Legislators make the law, thus legislators cannot be above the law. Recently, some of their behavior can rightfully be characterized as hate crimes. One instance occurred in the Florida legislature when Rep Frank Artiles berated a female Black colleague and called another colleague “nigga,” which he explained he didn’t think was insulting. Nonetheless, after a hail of tweets criticizing his behavior, he publicly apologized.

A second incident involved Texas lawmaker Matt Rinaldi who told his fellow Democratic representatives that he reported the immigration-rights protesters to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Following a heated exchange, Rinaldi threatened to shoot Texas Democratic Representative Poncho Nevárez.

There have been incidents on Washington, D.C.’s American University campus involving bananas, nooses, and hatred. Last year in September, someone - white (eyewitness accounts) - witnessed a student throwing a banana at a coed as she ambled by. The time for euphemisms is over. Let’s stop tap dancing around these incidents. They are hate crimes. These acts of racial hatred and disdain for humanity are symbolic acts of those who nostalgically await the “South to Rise Again!” If we ignore this phenomena and do nothing about it, literally, it shall - over our dead bodies.