Barbara Perry, In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes.

New York: Routledge, 2001. $22.95 papercover.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is the premiere resource on hate crimes in the United States. The Center has established the socio-legal context for understanding the prevalence, determent, and eradication of such crimes. In The Name of Hate by Barbara Perry uses data from The Southern Poverty Law Center, FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, and the Anti-Defamation League survey of hate crime laws as well as the growing body of literature on oppression based on race/ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual orientation to explain the structural and cultural context of hate crimes. This work is well documented, objectively confirming what women studies scholars and scholars of race and ethnic relations already know.

In the Name of Hate is an ambitious undertaking which represents a painful reality in the wake of the national tragedy of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack against the United States. While published prior to that date, this work adds a rather unique dimension to the scholarship on power and institutionalized discrimination and has global as well as domestic implications. Vivid and distasteful remarks by state and national political representatives which fuel tendencies toward hatred, bigotry and violence are cited extensively. The author uses a class struggle framework to examine power and the dynamics of difference. Intolerance, bigotry, and negative attitudes and stereotypes about subordinate groups which are prevalent among individual Americans are discussed in the context of a rhetoric of hate which begins at the "top". The most maligned three groups African Americans, gays and lesbians, and recent immigrants are used as exemplars of how an environment of intolerance is shaped by negative political rhetoric. Vivid quotes about the `black menace', the `ungodly gays', and the `immigrant threat' are provided as illustrations of how individuals are given permission to hate. The discussion in Chapter Six on the ideologies of power sets the stage for this chapter, which is indeed the most powerful of the eight chapters in the book. Hatred and the negative identity construction for subordinate groups are not just easily dismissed activities of extremist groups, but, in this author's view, are part of formal governmental mechanisms which fuel the informal mechanism which help perpetuate the marginalization of traditionally oppressed and subordinate groups. Understanding violence and hatred in this context is rather chilling.

Perry uses the phrase "doing difference" to characterize the manner in which human behavior is shaped and subordination maintained within the social structures of labor, power, sexuality and culture. Chapters Three, Four, and Five, detail the way difference is done with various subordinate or oppressed groups. In Chapter Two, this model is used to account for hate crimes and provide and understanding not provided by criminology and other theories. In the final chapter, the conclusion ends on a more socially optimistic note, by describing ways that we can `do difference differently'. Proactive strategies are given such as less exclusionary rhetoric, reshaping laws to protect and extend the rights of vulnerable groups, the promotion of social justice through the criminal justice system, planned initiatives against bigotry and violence, bridge-building efforts and similar efforts to shape a more positive political and social environment in relation to difference. That is, the final chapter focuses on strategies for social inclusion and leaves the reader with a more optimistic note about living in a pluralistic society.

Books of this nature which focus so heavily on power dynamics, conflict and struggle, oppression and subordination as a theoretical framework, while having great sociological value, tend to be demoralizing for the reader and causes one's optimism about creating a just society to wane. Focus is concentrated to heavily on the member of the subordinate group as a victim, continuously under seige, constantly on the defensive and consumed with a need for self-preservation. While hate crimes are real, require legislative attention to acts of violence and racial profiling; the incidence of such crimes are still comparatively low in the scheme of themes. The need for social justice is ever present, but the lives of members of racial, sexual and ethnic minority groups are characterized by much more than victimization. That said, in addition to the optimistic tone of the final chapter, the author has done a unique and superlative job of characterizing the role of rhetoric in devaluing subordinate groups. Rhetoric of persistent and demeaning stereotypes is an assault on one's self-esteem and identity, destroys the soul and is as harmful as a physical assault. Perry's unique way of framing the discussion on the role rhetoric plays in the environment is a significant contribution to understanding ways to initiate better social justice efforts.

Wilma Peebles-Wilkins
Boston University