Rise in hate crimes discussed at forum

Jace Radke

Tuesday, March 9, 1999 | 10:33 a.m.

A planned discussion on hate crimes at the Charleston campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada turned into a wide-ranging forum that touched on racism, prejudice, capital punishment and the freedoms of Americans.

The forum, which featured a panel of five speakers, was scheduled for one hour on Monday night but lasted nearly three hours.

About 50 people, mainly community college students, participated in the discussion, which the featured speaker, Pastor Jelani Kafela, appreciated.

"People in this country hardly ever sit down and truthfully discuss emotional issues like racism without yelling at each other," said Kafela, the pastor of the Imani Temple in Pomona, Calif. "Tonight we had a real dialogue, and that's a wonderful thing.

"Those here have begun a process of understanding that is so powerful they may not even realize what they are coming away with, but now they are on the road to change."

Others joining Kafela on the panel were CCSN sociology professor Bob Manis; Ricardo Orta, a behavior modification therapist from Des Moines, Iowa; Jane Heenan, director of the Las Vegas Transgender Center, and Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Among the topics discussed were hate crime legislation, the beating to death of a gay man in Wyoming and the dragging death of a black man in Texas.

Peck said that even though statistics are hard to come by, hate crimes are becoming more prevalent.

Kafela agreed, but said that these types of crimes have always been present.

"As an African American I can't say that hate crimes are heating up because I'm trying to figure out when they cooled off," Kafela said.

The panel will participate in two more discussions: Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the college's Cheyenne campus, room 1430, and Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Henderson campus, room 207.

Another main topic of the discussion was to distinguish individual prejudices from more powerful institutional and organizational prejudices.