Scott 1

De Aundria Scott

Dr. Mitchell

UWRT 1104

October 17, 2017

Why Do We Hate?

Hate is an intense dislike of someone or something. This emotion derives from different

things. Humans learn hate from experiences, culture, how one was raised. Situations in life have

constructed what and who people hate, why and what hate means to them. Hate is the basis of

hate crimes. Hate crimes is a crime (normally involving violence) on another regarding sexual

orientation, race, religion or any other type of prejudice. For example, painting swastikas on a

Muslims car and writing vulgar words is seen as a hate crime. (I gave a definition of hate crimes

as well as an example given to me by my peer). What is the amount of hate you need to have for

someone in order to inflict harm on them? That is what this inquiry will try to uncover.

To dive into why people hate, we must first know what it is that makes us human. Human

emotions are at play every second of everyday, spikes in emotions come from various life

experiences and it is those life experiences that amplify one emotion over the other. For example,

if a person was raised in a very loving and understanding home, as they get older they may be

more prone to have love and forgiveness in their heart rather than anger and hate.

Anthropology is the study of what makes us human (What Is Anthropology). Through

life experiences, ancestry, up-bringing etc. experts can get an idea of just why we humans do

what we do. It is completely safe to say that this cannot be 100% accurate and that all of us
 Scott 2

function in this way but based on science and life you can come to your own conclusion of what

drives emotions, specifically hate. When we think of the criminals behind hate crimes, most

people do not consider the chain of events that lead to that very incident. Not condoning hate

crimes but there is a reason for why these crimes happen whether it be elaborate or something

simple. Maybe if we knew or even had a little bit of understanding, we could prevent more hate

crimes and become more culturally aware. In the next paragraphs, I break down each type of

anthropology and how it relates to identifying hate.

There are three subfields of Anthropology that closely look at how we view the world

and society as humans. Biological Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology and Linguistic

Anthropology (What Is Anthropology). Biological Anthropology studies how we adapt to change

in environment. It studies what makes humans similar and what makes us different. The very

basis of human emotion is figuring out how we work and what makes us feel. Cultural

Anthropology is the understanding of where people live and what they do based off of where

they live. Linguistic Anthropology is the study of how people communicate across the globe.

From word of mouth, to global interactions, we all learn emotions from somewhere. The

connotation of emotions is derived from who we are and our life experiences.

The world is rapidly changing. In 1999, there were 457 hate groups in the US. Now, 18

years later there are 917 (Hate Map). Over 350 of those hate groups are geared towards race.

After Trump won his presidency, there were 1064 incidents of hate crimes (Staff). A lot of

people wonder why there is such a spike of hate crimes. Some people see it as random but it

could also be seen as nature. Biological Anthropology claims that we, as humans are moved to

do things by change in environment. Trump for some people is seen as a racist, homophobic

president. The shift from Barack Obama (a Democratic president who legalized same sex
marriage) to a Donald Trump (a Republican president who has strict views) has given more

people to justify cruelty. The shift in environment has caused many people to feel as if maybe it

is right to hate. With all the news you hear about Trump, the public see him as a figure of

justified hatred. This is just an example of how a shift in environment can easily trigger feelings

of hate or even guide people to think in a certain way. With all the celebrities and media we have

out there, influence is a huge guiding factor.

As the adaptation of different environment shapes us as human, our very own culture

shapes who we are as well. For example, Muslim women where head gear known as a hijab

because it is a part of their religion, their culture. In Christianity, there is a God so his faithful

servants pray to him every day. They do that because it is a part of their culture. According to

their report, anti-Muslim hate crime incidents rose dramatically in 2015 and then increased a

further 44 percent in 2016, going from 180 incidents in 2015 to 260 in 2016 (Pitter). These

violent acts range from jumping, killing, tearing off womens hijabs, etc. Of course, for

Americans, Muslims seem to be sensitive topic with all the terrorist attacks that seem to be

connected to them. The re-occurring theme of these hate crimes and just hate towards another

person of difference seems to be culture. One of the underlying fact of why we hate, why we

love. Many Americans are under the impression that all Muslims are terrorists because the

culture they know is only of a violent one. It is hard to see that one person could be motivated to

inflict harm on another just because of cultural differences but culture in our world is big. People

do not hang with certain groups because there culture does not align with the other persons.

Linguistics is a part of how we communicate although linguistics 100 years ago and

linguistics now have changed drastically. Linguistics is related to language and how we use it.

Now, language is moved from city to city, state to state, country to country with the use of
 Scott 4

technology and social media. Linguistics has become so wide spread that people have learned

one or two languages just from being on the internet. Hate groups used to be a something where

they were all together, based in the same city or state now with social media, members of hate

groups can be in an entirely different continent (Slashdot). From 2014 to 2016, 900% of likes

and comments from hate groups based off of Twitter had rose (Eversley). With such an easy

exchange of language, it makes it easier for people to validate their hatred or to be persuaded to

hate. All it takes is one leader brave enough to stick out. Every person has their own way of

talking of blending in. Triggering someones emotions can be as easy as talking. When you say

something so powerful to move the masses. Like Martin Luther King Jr. I Have a Dream

speech. That motivated many. With the way he spoke and his conviction. It can be the same way

but the complete opposite like how Hitler spoke with such a conviction but only planned to do

evil but others thought he was fighting for a good cause because of how he spoke. Now that we

have media, linguistics is wide spread from language to language.

The way we speak also gears us to be a certain type of person. The diction and

connotation we use it is all connected to how we were raised and how our parents speak. How

we speak goes to how we were raised and who we are now, in this very moment is accredited to

not only how speak but how we were raised and how we adapted to change of environment.

Surely, this inquiry will not tell you exactly why every individual human hates but it will give

you an insight to what underlying truths and foundations cause us to hate. Sometimes there never

seems to be an exact reason like with Dylann Roof and the Charleston shooting. An expose was

written about him, trying to uncover why he did it. What caused him to hate so much that he

walked in on a bible study and murdered 9 unknowing citizens. Typically, you look to ones

parents to see how or why they are like that but in the expose written by Rachel Ghansah it
seemed that the parents were not the problem. It was said that in Dylanns history classes that he

was not taught the correct way, that how he learned of people of color and slavery was a

different view of how your typical American student learns it (Ghansah). One could argue that

Dylann is simply the spawn of the devil but I would like to believe that he did this because of the

simple fact of Biological Anthropology. He may not have been born with hatred brewing inside

of him but because of his environment and the people and teaching he was exposed to, he gained

a warped idea of the world and people of color and began to hate so deeply, so passionately that

it drove him, at the age of 21, to murder 9 church goers.

Ultimately, whether we want to believe that there is a truthful, scientific reason behind

hate and hate crimes, it is still a huge problem. There are plenty of hate crimes that go reported

but thousands more that do not get reported. The FBI itself is not exactly sure of how many hate

crimes occur a year (Dedman). The world around us is harsh and cruel but for every problem,

there is a reason and a solution. I think we should try to see hate crimes in a different light. Not

as evil people doing evil things but corrupt people doing the see as justified. Do not see it like

this to condone the behavior but to be able to spot it at a young age and maybe change it.
 Scott 6

Works Cited

Dedman, Bill, Mike Brunker, and Monica Alba. "Hate Crime in America, by the

Numbers."NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, 18 June 2015. Web. 31 Oct.

2017.

Eversley, Melanie. Study: 'Hate' Groups Explode on Social Media. USA Today, Gannett

Satellite Information Network, 10 Mar. 2017.

Ghansah, Rachel Kaadzi. A Most American Terrorist: The Making Of Dylann Roof. GQ, GQ,

21 Aug. 2017.

"Hate Map." Southern Poverty Law Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2017.

Pitter, Laura. Hate Crimes Against Muslims in US Continue to Rise in 2016. Human Rights

Watch, 1 Aug. 2017.

Potok, Mark. DOJ Study: More Than 250,000 Hate Crimes a Year, Most Unreported.Southern

Poverty Law Center, 26 Mar. 2013.

Staff, Slate. "Hate in America: DOJ Launches Investigation Into Charlottesville Violence."Slate

Magazine. N.p., 14 Aug. 2017. Web. 31 Oct. 2017.

"Slashdot." Is Social Media Making Us Hate Each Other? N.p., 23 Apr. 2017. Web. 31 Oct.

2017.

What Is Anthropology? What Is Anthropology? - Advance Your Career.