13 i The Blue Banner I 4.6.2011
No more waiting, stop hate crimes now
I
Alicia Adcox
aradcox@unca.edu
Asst. Campus Voice
Editor
Maybe the flower
children of the ’60s
had a point with all
their talk of peace
and love.
Recent events show we still
have much to learn about these
topics.
An 11-foot cross was stolen
from a church in Arroyo Grande,
Calif, sometime in late February.
Weeks later, the cross appeared
outside the home of a black fam
ily, only it was on fire.
The FBI was called in to
investigate the case and it is
being treated as a hate crime.
Unfortunately, it’s not an isolated
incident.
Just last year, a cross was
burned outside the home of a
biracial family in Fletcher, N.C.
The perpetrators were two juve
nile boys.
According to the FBI’s Hate
Crime Statistics report, there were
71 reported hate crimes in North
Carolina in 2009. Nine of those
crimes occurred in Buncombe
County.
The FBI defines hate crimes
as any crime motivated by the
offender’s bias against a victim’s
race, religion, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, national origin or dis
ability.
, Cross-burnings are only one
example of hate crimes, one with
a very serious history. The act
of burning a cross dates back
decades and is largely associated
with the Ku Klux Klan. They
burned the cross as a means of
intimidation.
So, why is an act of hate that
should have ended years ago still
surfacing? Probably for the same
reason any hate crime still occurs.
People just cannot seem to look
past labels or stereotypes.
It seems people are discrimi
nated against for almost anything:
race, sexual orientation, gender,
religion. It’s a never-ending list
of reasons. Why hate someone
simply based on his or her back
ground, culture or skin color?
What do we get out of hating
someone for superficial reasons?
We get wars. We get violence.
We get grief. We get fear. We get
nothing.
Hate crimes and discrimination
pass these twisted values to future
generations who can pass it on
to their future generations. It’s a
destructive chain without a clear
ending.
Children are taught at a young
age to share, to play nice, to say
thank you and yes ma’am. Is it so
hard to teach them to accept? Is it
easier to teach them to hate so the
chain continues?
We spend years fighting for
peace in the Middle East. We
offer aid and support to bring
peace to Egypt and Libya and
other countries under the tyranny
of a dictator. When do we fight to
bring peace here?
We could start by looking past
stereotypes formed generations
ago.
We could start by standing
up against emblems of fear that
should not even exist. We could
start by spreading tolerance, not
hate.
John Mayer sang, “We keep
waiting on the world to change.
But why are we waiting?
Persistence needed to get summer job
Andy Sherman
awsherma@unca.edu
Staff Writer
It’s that
time of the
year again.
The sun is
shining,
school is
coming to
a close and students are
scrambling to find a sum
mer job.
Only this time may be
more urgent than ever.
With the summer of 2010
ingrained in the minds of
many high school and col
lege students, the summer
of 2011 appears to be just
as bleak.
According to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, only
48.9 percent of youth ages
16 to 24 were employed
last summer, the lowest
since 1948.
A year later, the economy
does not appear to show
any signs of improvement
as budget cuts to govern
ment agencies across the
country are expected to
negatively impact the teen
job market.
Challenger, Gray &
Christmas, Inc., a Chicago
consulting firm, predicts the
number of summer jobs of
fered by the city of Chicago
will decrease by 22 percent
this year.
Obviously we can’t use
the city of Chicago as a
representative for every city
in the United States, but
students should not assume
that there will be plenty of
"As tough as the economy may be,
students shouldn't use that as an
excuse to not try harder to seek a job."
Everett Shuford
UNCA junior, computer science
jobs available in Asheville.
While driving around the
city last weekend, I noticed
gas prices hovering around
$3.50 a gallon. Graphs from
2010 show this is 80 cents
more than last summer.
So, if transportation costs
are rising and public jobs
receiving less funding, what
hope is there for us this
summer?
Luckily there is hope, but
only for those who work
the hardest to find a job.
The first step is to start
early. Employers realize
that and are beginning the
process now to prepare
for summer employment
instead of putting it off until
later.
Students need to keep up
with employers and start
seeking a job now and not
when the summer begins.
Employers will want to
hire the most aggressive
and determined candidate
out there.
While Challenger, Gray
& Christmas reported teens
are likely to conduct 90
percent of their job search
ing online, there will still
be plenty of opportunities
out there for companies that
don’t rely on Ciaigslist.
“As tough as the econ
omy may be, students
shouldn’t use that as an
excuse to not try harder to
seek a job,” said Everett
Shuford, a UNC Asheville
junior and computer sci
ence student.
Last summer, Shuford got
a job at Wal-Mart, where he
is still employed. He said
he believes the best way to
get a job this summer is to
build a personal relation
ship with the employer.
The second step, as
Shuford demonstrated, is to
establish a relationship with
the manager.
Dropping an application
off with the cashier is the
equivalent of sending it in
an email.
If you ask to speak with
the manager and physically
hand him or her an applica
tion, he or she will have
a face and a better under
standing of you than what
they will get from a cyber
application.
“Employers will read
tons of names on applica
tions, but they will be a lot
more likely to hire a face
that goes along with it,”
See JOBS on page 14
Fftlsc r^pc convictions of Norfolk Four illuminntc flnws in court system
t-j
Jessica Yee
I jhyee@unca.edu -
] Contributing Writer
John Grisham is
a liar.
The crime
thriller author
said the screenplay he is writ
ing about the Norfolk Four
is not about profit or making
money.
The case that inspired his
screenplay will hopefully
remind Americans about the
persistent flaws in the criminal
justice system.
The Norfolk Four were
convicted of the 1997 rape and
murder of 18-year-old Michelle
Moore-Bosko.
The U.S. Navy veterans
served up to 11 years in prison
even though no DNA or physi
cal evidence linked them to the
crime.
America’s justice system
clearly warrants significant
changes if false confessions
can successfully serve as the
only basis for conviction.
The Innocence Project, a
nonprofit devoted to assisting
wrongly convicted people and
reforming the criminal justice
system, reported that false con
fessions or admissions contrib
uted to 25 percent of wrong
ful convictions. Biological
evidence is only involved in 5
to 10 percent of criminal cases
in the United States, according
to the organization.
The Norfolk Four, who
received conditional pardons
and were released from jail
last September, said detectives
threatened their well-being and
coerced them to obtain false
confessions.
Sociologist and interrogation
expert Richard Ofshe reported
that Robert Glenn Ford, the
chief investigator in the case,
used psychologically coercive
methods to obtain false confes
sions from the Norfolk Four.
To get the men to implicate
See COURT on page 14