To the Editor:
When a white gunman shoots nine people dead in a black church in South Carolina, this is a “hate crime.” When two Muslim gunmen open fire at an exhibition of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in Texas, this is “terrorism.” Why isn’t the attack on the A.M.E. Church in Charleston not labeled “terrorism” and the assault on the cartoon exhibition a “hate crime”?
Is “terrorism” restricted to attacks whose intended victims are largely straight white people? The label “terrorism” is intended to make us all afraid. “Hate crimes” instill fear mainly in minorities—African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, L.G.B.T.Q.
Why can’t we own up to the fact that hate crimes are just another form of terrorism, perhaps the worst, since they target the weak among us?
ROBERT LAUNAY
Evanston, Ill.
