Shakur 1

Seattle Shakur
Professor Wason
Cross Cultural Communication
11 December 2016
Part A: Donald Trump and Hate Crimes
After Donald Trump had won the presidential election, hate crimes have been occurring
across the United States in greater numbers than before the election (Sgueglia et al.). Ten days
after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center counted 867 cases of hate crimes since Trump
was named president elect. These crimes have taken place in schools, businesses, on the street, and
many other places. People blame theses hate crimes on Trump for fostering xenophobia and
Islamophobia during his campaign. Some groups targeted in these attacks include the LGBT
community, Muslims, Jews, African Americans, immigrants from Mexico, and tons of other
groups (Sgueglia et al.).
In this situation the majority are white Americans and the minority groups being the ones
who are targeted in these hate crimes. The article shows intolerance towards these groups because
the people following through with these hate crimes have no good reason to dislike and hate
minority groups. The groups in the article have been a part of systematic discrimination in the past.
During and before the Holocaust, Jews were discriminated against just because of their religion.
This is similar with how Muslims were discriminated against after September 11 2001. Black
Americans have been discriminated against ever since slavery and have been given the short end
of the stick when it comes to equality.
The article does a pretty good job of showing empathy with the audience. There is an
assumption of difference when reading the article, because the writing is not targeted towards one

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ethnic or religious group. If the article had a target audience of Black Americans, then it would
show sympathy, or shared feelings, with that group of people. With this article, though, it is
speaking to every American and non-Americans, not just targeting a certain group. So the writer
is trying to empathize with the readers. Like the Bennett article said, "If we accept that we might
be different, . . . we are free to imagine our thoughts and feeling from a different perspective. In
so far as we can then align the imagined self-perspective with that of an actual other person, we
are able to empathize" (Bennett 226).
Another way this article helps empathize with the readers is that, it gives specific examples
of hate crimes and the reader is able to put themselves in the individuals shoes. Specific examples
include five California mosques getting sent letter saying that Muslims are "vile and filthy people"
and advocating genocide. "Go home" was scratched into the car of a Puerto Rican family. An Uber
driver, who was also a Muslim, was verbally assaulted by a white male in an SUV. A transgender
woman's car was spray painted with a swatica, and told the woman to die (Sgueglia et al.). These
are just a few hate crimes that were discussed in the article. There are such a large variety of groups
of people that these hate crimes are targeted towards. This allows for more diversity between
people, meaning more empathy.
By showing more empathy than sympathy, the article allows people to follow the Platinum
Rule and skip the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is when one treats someone as they would want
to be treated. This rule allows for ethnocentric ideas and says that the person thinks everyone wants
to be treated as they do, which is false (Bennett 204). Everyone has their own way of wanting to
be treated. This is why the Platinum Rule is better. It states one should treat others as they want to
be treated. One does not make the assumption that everyone is the same as them and it gets rid of
these ethnocentric ideals.

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In the textbook, it talks about stereotyping and how stereotypes affect people's view of an
ethnicity, culture, or religion. A stereotype is defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified
image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. These misperceptions can become a serious
problem when it comes to intercultural interaction (McDaniel et al. 390). This ties into the CNN
article, because people are using the stereotypes they have in their heads to judge all people of that
race/ethnicity or religion. A person may have a notion in their minds that all Muslims are terrorists
and therefore, act on those thoughts in a violent manner. In another example, from what Donald
Trump has been saying, one might see all Mexican immigrants as lazy rapists, with no basis in
reality that shows any factual evidence towards this stereotype. The best way to avoid creating
stereotypes about a specific group of people is to learn more about different cultures in childhood.
Also, being more mindful of another person's culture and beliefs helps eliminate stereotypes and
intolerance (McDaniel et al. 391).
The article also relates to the textbook when it comes to the topic of prejudice. Prejudice is
a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. In the textbook, it shows
the five different types of prejudice that people may express. The first one is antilocution or making
a negative verbal comment about a person or group (McDaniel et al. 394). An example of this
would be how the white SUV driver made racist remarks to the Muslim Uber driver saying, ". . .
you can kiss your visa goodbye scumbag. They'll deport you soon, don't worry you f***ing
terrorist (Sgueglia et al.)." The second expression of prejudice is avoidance, when a person
physically avoids contact with a disliked group. The third expression is discrimination, or the effort
to exclude all members of a group from access to opportunity, institutions, services, and other
forms of social life. For the fourth one, it involves physical attacks acted out on a particular group
(McDaniel et al. 394-395). In the article, a Muslim student in Michigan was almost attacked with

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a lighter for wearing a hijab (Sgueglia et al.) The last form of prejudice is extermination, or where
a group is subjected to physical violence with the intent of total extermination (McDaniel et al.
395).
The article also discusses racism towards African Americans in the United States. Racism
is defined as the belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race. It denies the basic quality of
humankind and correlates ability with physical composition (McDaniels et al. 396). The article
stated that a teacher at a Pasco County, Florida high school was accused of telling a group of black
students standing in a hallway, "Dont make me call Donald Trump to get you sent back to Africa"
(Sgueglia et al.). This is just one example of racism mentioned in the article geared towards Black
Americans.

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Works Cited
Bennett, Milton J. "Overcoming the Golden Rule: Sympathy and Empathy." Yarmouth, US:
Intercultural Press, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 6 October 2016.
McDaniel, Edwin R. et al. Communication Between Cultures. Boston: Cengage Learning,
2015. Print.
Sgueglia, Kristina et al. "'Make America White Again': Hate speech and crimes post-election."
CNN. 29 November 2016. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/us/post-election-hate-crimesand-fears-trnd/. 11 December 2016.