Chair Salaam: NYC diversity as strength and hate crimes' impact
Chair Salaam discusses how NYC's diversity is its greatest strength and how hate crimes seek to divide communities, targeting not just individuals but entire faith, race, gender identity, and background groups, with harm that reverberates across generations.
Today's oversight hearing examines the role of community engagement in preventing and responding to hate and bias.
New York City is one of the most diverse places on earth.
That diversity is our greatest strength, and it is a source of great pride and unity for New Yorkers.
Hate crimes strike at the very heart of this strength by seeking to divide, seeking to pit us against each other, as opposed to uniting one another.
They target not just the individual, but all our communities, sending a message of fear and exclusion to all who share the victim's faith, the victim's race,
the victim's gender identity, or the victim's background.
That harm is immediate.
But it can reverberate throughout generations.