A Look Into Religious Hate Crimes

Story by Kyle Wilkinson | Photos by Kassandra Eller | Design by Sara Roach

You’re walking across campus to your next class. Amidst the many conversations that you pass, suddenly you hear a derogatory slur directed towards a particular religion. You may think this type of language is not normal and benign. But this type of attitude about different beliefs or worldviews is still common and in some instances, has even led to a criminal offense.

CWU is a university with many students possessing different world views and beliefs. As a result, it can sometimes be difficult to understand your fellow peers and navigate your differences. The first stop in interpreting others’ lives is taking a look at how hate crimes play out on a college campus and how students can accommodate other beliefs.

Where Religious Bias Stems From You may be wondering why there is bias and conflict between different religious groups. “Religion obviously

is seen as one of those things that is of ultimate utmost importance,” says Jeffrey Dippmann, professor of Asian Studies and chair for the Philosophy and Religious Studies department. “If it’s true that there is life after death, if it’s true that there is some kind of eternal life, then how we live now is going to be … the theoretical factor in where we end up.”

Dippmann believes that many people have a ‘subjective experience’ with religion. An experience that an individual has can make them feel that they need to share this experience with others. Where religious discrimination comes into play is when a person experiencing their own beliefs, cannot accept that someone else with a different belief can have the same kind of experience. “If you’re going to appeal to your subjective experience,” says Dippmann, “then everybody’s subjective experience should be treated equally.” Respecting other religions starts with knowing that someone practicing a different belief is

doing so for the same reasons as you. Whether conscious or not, religion can drive your decision making. Your words, actions and even clothing choices may often be based on cultural assumptions drawn from religion.

“Some of the things that you practice, even though you don’t believe you’re religious, actually do have those kinds of religious undertones to them,” says Dippmann.

Abby Chien, director of the Diversity and Equity Center (DEC), thinks that discrimination on campus often manifests itself through a lack of understanding between different belief groups.

“This is the lack of recognition of understanding what different faith practice could mean, or the value that it has for particular people because our dominant lens might not have allowed us to recognize something particular,” she says.

Religious discrimination boils down to grouping certain people together and assuming they collectively think or act in one way while not truly understanding why they may think that way. These biases may be based off of experiences with a person or an event. Yet, it can be considered dangerous, unfair or ignorant to apply stereotypes so broadly over certain groups of people.

Just because a set of beliefs may be specific to a group of people, does not mean it applies to everyone in this community.

“It is painting people with very broad brushes that don’t reflect reality,” says Dippmann. “It’s stereotyping. It’s prejudging with no basis in reality.”

Defining Hate Crimes By now you might be thinking that it’s hard to believe people would commit crimes solely based on religious differences. But these acts aren’t as uncommon as you may believe and even have a small history right here on campus.

All universities are required to submit an annual security and fire safety report on crime and fire data for many reasons. The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, as noted in the CWU Annual Report, states that these institutions must “collect, report and disseminate crime and fire data,” and “requires the timely warning to the campus community of certain crimes, and notification of incidents that pose a threat to our community.”

So what this means for you is that CWU and its security team are required to educate the campus community on various crimes and fire emergencies that may occur.

Data on crimes that have been carried out on campus is also submitted and accessible to students through the university police department’s website. This is where information on offenses considered to be hate crimes would be located.

Under the Clery Act, hate crimes are defined as “a criminal offense that manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim … The categories of bias include the victim’s actual or perceived race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin and disability.” In terms of a college campus, hate crimes can manifest in slurs and in

sensitive comments towards specific groups of people who may have differing beliefs or religious traditions but also have the potential to escalate into violence and vandalism.

Hate becomes criminal

The most recent instance of a religious hate crime occuring at CWU was in 2012, according to the CWU Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. This specific instance resulted in vandalism of property at a residence hall on campus.

Campus police officers like CWU University Police & Public Safety Lieutenant Marc McPherson have to be able to distinguish the severity of these different types of hate offenses and act accordingly.

To be proven that a crime was based on religious discrimination, it must be backed up by evidence that the problem was based on religious hate. Even if no criminal action is taken, there is still a victim, McPherson points out.

“If there’s no crime, we still have somebody that feels like they have been victimized or they still have those feelings,” says McPherson. “They’re legitimate feelings. Whether it rises to the level of crime or not, they legitimately feel and it’s a real emotion.”

The campus police department will often refer an individual to a place where they can find support among peers or professional staff.

“If we don’t know the answer, we’re tasked with finding the answer or finding who can get them the answer,” explains McPherson. “We’re not an expert in everything. But what we should be experts in is how to get the information to help the people that need it.”

Besides intervention and treating someone victimized by a hate crime, McPherson suggests protecting yourself before a situation occurs. “We just want people to be aware of their surroundings and to report it,” he says.

If you feel that you are being attacked or offended by another person because of your beliefs, you are encouraged to seek help.

“If you see something, say something,” says McPherson. “We would absolutely much rather go to 100 calls that turned out to be nothing or just small bits of information than to have to get involved when something has already blown up into an issue.”

Celebrating Diversity

One way that these situations can be diffused before they even start is through engagement with people of different religious backgrounds.

The DEC organizes students and promotes conversation in the campus community. The Center works to make students feel like they have a resource to reach out to and feel like they belong, says Chien.

Also, working with different clubs and organizations around campus to promote different beliefs and religious groups is a job of the DEC. This manifests through creating safe spaces for individuals to practice their beliefs.

“There’s a reflection room in Hebeler Hall, and that reflection room is open to students of all faiths or no faiths … It’s why it’s named a reflection room,” says Chien.

There are more safe spaces to learn about resources or engage in conversa-

WINTER 2020 | ISSUE TWO 17 tions with others being created every year at CWU.

“Being able to make space to have conversations about what you need to practice your faith, what community feels like for your faith practice, religion and spirituality are part of diversity,” says Chien. “If diversity is just the recognition of difference, there are lots of different ways that people connect religiously and spiritually.”

If you feel that you need a community to be in, McPherson believes that support starts with reaching out to others on campus. There are various groups that may share similar beliefs or religious practices.

“Be familiar with your allies on campus,” says McPherson. “Just get out and know your community. Don’t be afraid to go see what’s out there. This campus is amazing as far as the clubs, organizations [and] the resources that we have.”

McPherson points out that the police at CWU are a resource to turn to when things get out of hand. “We’re people too. We’re all humans, and we’re here for your success,” says McPherson.

Starting this conversation with others and building allies can be simple. Instead of stereotyping or maintaining strong biases, Ken Jones, minister for the Kittitas Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation, a church that welcomes and accommodates numerous belief systems, suggests sitting down and talking with others about their beliefs.

“It’s very easy to just spend all your time hanging around with people who agree with you and just avoid any kind of engagement at all with people who don’t agree with you,” says Jones. “It makes each day a little easier to live when you don’t have to worry about any kind of disagreements.”

While mass media can connect you with others, it can also create a divide between people while preventing meaningful and legitimate connections.

“I think too that some of it is exacerbated by social media and other forms of media where sometimes that becomes the primary way that people connect with the outside world,” says Jones.

“They may have some measure of truth to them, but they’re not really. It’s not the same as actually getting to know other people that are different from you and really

understanding what their experience is like,” he adds.

To promote understanding between different religious beliefs, Chien suggests doing research on what other people believe in order to better understand where they are coming from.

“I think they can always do their own kind of research and investigation to understand what those faith practices might entail,” says Chien. “Be really thoughtful about understanding the tenants of faith practice and then recognizing how individual it is for people to engage and celebrate or honor how they practice.”

Once we understand that we are talking to other people, who may not be so different from us after all, we can begin to respect where they are coming from. We can also learn to treat others with the same respect that we would like to be treated with, which can lead to more meaningful connections. “We’re people too. We’re all humans, and we’re here for your success.”