Attempted murder should not surprise Chico community

Joseph Igbineweka, 23, president of the Associated Students at Chico State University, was the victim of an apparent racially motivated attack early Sunday morning as he was returning home from a party on West Sacramento Avenue. He is in stable condition and recovering at Enloe Medical Center. Read the full article.
It never ceases to amaze me the way hate crimes are minimized. Take the headline for example “AS leader hurt in apparent racial attack”. To say that he was hurt makes it sound like he stubbed a toe, or sprained an ankle, rather than being repeatedly stabbed. I also like how he was injured in the attack, rather than by attackers. This is such a weak and passive framing of the event. I also wonder what, if anything, will actually push the media to use the word racist in place of racial? The difference lies in the underlying motivation of anger or hatred. If stabbing someone is not an act of hate then what is? 

So now what will we do? The cynic in me says that there will be a rally and a vigil. A few signs will be waves and a few speeches made. The news article will says that the overwhelming turnout at the rally/vigil shows that our community will not tolerate hatred. We will feel good and feel like we have done something and pat ourselves on the back. We will move on and return to normal. We will not recognize that normal is the problem. That in our day to day lives we do not examine our actions, we do not acknowledge our privilege, we are blissfully unaware of how our culture produced two young men who wanted to kill another young man because he was black.
We will see them as monsters or sociopaths whose actions are unthinkable, unfathomable, yet here we are thinking about and fathoming them, and not for the first time. Do you remember the Neo-Nazi publications distributed in chico in 2004? The racist graphite in the dorms? What about Mike Ramsey’s wonderful comments made during the investigation into the gang rape of a PV High student? Or the woman who was raped and then covered with garbage out of Tacos De Acapulco’s dumpster, in front of bystanders?
This is not the first time hatred and violence have shaken our community, and sadly will not be the last. Until we see these acts as extreme yet logical reactions to the ever present (yet rarely identified) undercurrent of hate that flows through our lives everyday the necessary change will not come.