According to the United States Department of Justice, in 2021 the total reported number of hate crimes was 7,074, much lower than the 8,263 in 2020. However, NPR and other news outlets have stated that only 11,883 law enforcement agencies sent data to the FBI, compared to the 15,138 in 2020. 

There can be some gray area around whether a crime committed is indeed a hate crime, but at the basic level, hate crimes are defined as crimes where the motivation stems from a bias against a person or group of people based on specific characteristics (defined by the law). This differs state by state. For instance, in Oregon, the law covers race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, etc. as a basis for biased crimes. 

Oregon is not new to hate crimes. Just this month, ABC News and OPB reported that in Portland, Michael Bivins, a former journalist, is being charged for attacking and defacing synagogues, and black owned businesses. He is accused of spray painting anti-semetic language on synagogues, and setting a Muslim center on fire. 

Despite the laws, and the news coverage, and the frequency of hate crimes, the cycle hasn’t ended. We can no longer wake up afraid, or wake up tired of hearing about another hate crime on the news. We can no longer talk passively about hate crimes or sit and listen about them. We have to take action. Why do hate crimes happen? We know the mass-produced answers. But what can we do to stop them?

It’s difficult to merely change the minds of biased people. We, as teenagers, can’t do things like create entire resources dedicated to those affected by, or to those committing hate crimes, but that’s no reason to do nothing. To deplete biased perspectives, our society has to make connections between groups of people. Our generation—our school district—has it easiest right now to connect with people unlike us, with different backgrounds and perspectives. With the internet, with public schools, with extracurricular activities, and being in America, where we have the ease of diversity being two seats away from us in Algebra class, breaking the cycle can be nigh. Beyond that, we can push for proper documentation on hate crimes, we can do our research, and call attention to the hate that happens around us. 

There’s no time to wait for change. There is time to take action with what is at our fingertips and force this cycle to an end.