Monday, April 30, 2007
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
(I am going to try to get a hold of Jacobs and Potter's book and write about it. For now, a few musings on "hate crime" ideology. Given my blogging text limits, I will post the text separated in different parts, and cut into the usual tiny posts.)
The quotes below come from a review of the book by a guy with a homosexual dysfunction. Ralph Wedgwood, formerly an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is now a Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He is the author of "The Fundamental Argument for Same-Sex Marriage," Journal of Political Philosophy (1999),
The quotes below come from a review of the book by a guy with a homosexual dysfunction. Ralph Wedgwood, formerly an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is now a Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He is the author of "The Fundamental Argument for Same-Sex Marriage," Journal of Political Philosophy (1999),
In Chapter 6, Jacobs and Potter criticize the justifications that are most frequently offered for hate crime laws. First, they consider the claim that "more severe penalties for criminals motivated by prejudice are justified because such offenders are morally worse--more culpable--than criminals who engage in the same conduct, but for reasons other than prejudice" (pp. 79-80). They dismiss this claim with the following objection (p. 80): "A con artist may defraud widows out of their life savings in order to lead a life of luxury. An ideologue may assassinate a political leader in order to dramatize his cause or to coerce decision makers into changing national policy. Are these criminals less morally reprehensible than a gay basher or a black rioter who beats an Asian storeowner? Of course not."
Labels: hate crime, homosexuality, law, liberals
