A YOUNG white man walked into a grocery store in the US just over a week ago, and shot 13 people. Eleven of those people were African Americans and 10 casualties resulted. Authorities declared that the shooting in Buffalo, New York, was racially motivated.

Just days later a gunman entered a church injuring five persons and fatally shooting a man who tackled him and prevented him from causing any further casualties. This too was declared a hate crime but against Taiwanese people and perpetrated by someone who had an ongoing grievance.

And all of this took place weeks after an impassioned speech against race hate by US Democratic Senator Mallory McMorrow, who called on “white suburban moms” to speak out and say, “this is not okay.”

The 18-year-old who shot those 13 people live-streamed it on social media for all to see.

Speaking on the show ‘Morning Joe,’ Reverend Al Sharpton called for a government-sponsored conference on hate crimes, pointing out that white supremacists target anyone who is different from them, including Jews, Muslims and Hispanics.

According to the FBI, there has been a surge in hate crimes in the past two years, particularly against Black people and more recently against Asian-Americans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. And one social commentator joining with Reverend Sharpton recommended that those groups being targeted come together to fight this growing scourge in their society.

Apparently, the underlying motivation for such crimes is the ‘replacement theory’ being promulgated by white supremacists – called a “poison” by US President, Joe Biden – who claim that the Jews are behind a plot to have white people replaced by people of colour.

Reference was made in the media to other instances of racially motivated killings, targeting other ethnic groups and being fuelled by ultra-right groups, who have been radicalising followers using social media.

Social media platforms are also being held accountable for allowing uncensored hate material to be circulated, especially in light of the fact that the Buffalo shooter live-streamed his killing spree.

President Biden, who visited the area days after the shooting, also spoke out against the growing problem of public access to assault rifles and what he termed “weapons of war,” especially in the hands of people with mental health issues. Statistics apparently show that the majority of shooters were suffering from some form of mental illness.

Certainly, hate could be termed a mental illness, stemming, as it so often does, from irrational fear and isolation and manifesting in harmful ways.

For instance, the Buffalo shooter planned other killings, had he not been apprehended, including targeting a church with a predominantly black congregation.

He was shown on camera sparing the life of a White man, who begged him not to shoot. His hate was clearly directed against Black people and manifested in mass murder.

An abstract definition of hate published in the Sage Journals stated that “… hate has a unique pattern of appraisals and action tendencies” and goes on to say, “We hate persons and groups more because of who they are, than because of what they do. Hate has the goal to eliminate its target. Hate is especially significant at the intergroup level, where it turns already devalued groups into victims of hate.” This aptly sums up racially motivated crimes.

With such crimes on the rise and occurring all over the world, hopefully psychologists will become more involved in research and analysis of this phenomenon, which has been left largely to other disciplines such as sociology and help provide some answers.

Perhaps this quote about hate gives us some insight into where should begin:

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”.