Hate crimes (was Re: muggle baiting vs. muggle torture)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 155788

> Alla:

> I would say that it would totally depend how exactly white person 
> would choose to express his hatred of the black person. 

 

Magpie:

Yes, so would I.  That's what I'm talking about. 
 

Alla:
> that would be white boy playing prank on the black boy because the 
> black boy is a bully and continuously tormented the white boy 
younger > brother for years, then **No** it is not racism or 
antisemitism to me.


Magpie:
Or, to describe the Twins' situation, they are two white boys who 
have invented a new pranking thing and want to try it out, but can't 
do it at home. They are going somewhere and their little brother is 
taking his friend.  They realize that if they accompany their father 
to the little brother's friend's house to pick him up also there will 
be the black kid who used to bully their younger brother's friend for 
years, up until a few years ago.  They think he will be a good 
target.  Oh, and this particular prank is based around something 
familiar to white people and threatening to black people. 


Alla:> 

> Should jewish bully be spared from a prank by non-jews, whose 
little 
> brother he "hunted" for years just because he is a jew? Not in my 
> book.

Magpie:
That avoids the nature of the Prank and the Power imbalance.  The Jew 
isn't being spared a Prank because he's a Jew, he's being spared an 
anti-Semitic prank because he's a Jew.  A prank that targets his 
weakness as a Jew--regardless of whether the person targetted him 
only because he's a Jew.   

> Betsy Hp:
> How would you feel if the prank played consisted of attaching a 
note 
> saying "Dirty Jew" to the back of that child's shirt?  Would the 
> excuse, "We didn't do it *because* he's a Jew" work for you? IOWs 
if 
> the prank specifically took advantage of the fact that the child is 
> Jewish and the prankers are not, would you still think it okay?  


Alla:

Well, yes of course if there would be the slightest reason to think 
that this child is targeted **because** he is a jew, not just because 
he is a bully, I would be very angry.

Magpie:
So as long as you felt that the kids did not target the kid because 
he was a Jew, you wouldn't consider it anti-Semitic that they decided 
to prank the Jewish kid they didn't like by putting a DIRTY JEW sign 
on his back?  Or would the fact that they went for that prank suggest 
a latent anti-Semitism that was already there but they just didn't 
have cause to act on as long as the Jew was a nice guy their view?

Of course the Twins would rather just think it's about not pranking 
Muggles because they're Muggles--they have no interest in doing 
that.  That's an easy temptation to avoid.  It's not even a 
temptation.  Respecting the dignity of others--especially someone 
weak but not innocent?  Really examining themselves and their 
attitudes about others?  That's a challenge.

-m