Too many people believe it’s okay to hate.
It’s easy to find “different anti-Semitic images comparing Jews to pigs,” said the Anti-Defamation League’s David Goldenberg during an Illinois House hearing Thursday, “Imagery that is clearly anti-Semitic was posted by a student organization at the University of Chicago late last year to its Instagram feed.
“In the Midwest we’ve seen a 62 percent increase since 2020 and a 200 percent increase if we go back to 2016.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s David Goldenberg was among several testifying to an Illinois House panel. Another was Julie Justice of the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.
“Why do we treat hate crimes differently than other crimes?” Justice asked. “There is both an injury to the victim and to the community that was targeted for the particular issue of hate, whether it be Muslin-Americans following the 9/11 attacks, whether it be Asian-Americans during the pandemics.”
Another problem: Much hate crime goes unreported.