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Bard Human Rights Program

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Bard Center for the Study of Hate Releases New Publication on the Economic Costs of Hate Crimes 

The Bard Center for the Study of Hate has released a new report examining the economic costs of violence stemming from hatred. The study, written by Bard Associate Professor Michael Martell, estimates that the measurable annual cost of hate crimes is nearly 3.4 billion, with the actual cost likely much higher. “Clearly, violence from hate has an economic cost, from property damage to medical costs to policing to psychological damage to the cost of fear rippling through a community,” Martell writes in “Economic Costs of Hate Crimes.” “The costs of hate crimes will also tell us something about the structure of our economy, from direct costs to lost opportunities.”

Bard Center for the Study of Hate Releases New Publication on the Economic Costs of Hate Crimes 

The Bard Center for the Study of Hate (BCSH) has released a new report examining the economic costs of violence stemming from hatred. The study, written by Bard Associate Professor Michael Martell, estimates that the measurable annual cost of hate crimes is nearly 3.4 billion, with the actual cost likely much higher.
 
“Clearly, violence from hate has an economic cost, from property damage to medical costs to policing to psychological damage to the cost of fear rippling through a community,” Martell writes in “Economic Costs of Hate Crimes.” “The costs of hate crimes will also tell us something about the structure of our economy, from direct costs to lost opportunities.”

Martell draws on a particular hate crime—the massacre at a Sikh temple by a white supremacist in 2012—to illustrate the various economic losses, including those to the victims directly and those to society. Using available, if incomplete, data from national sources, the study breaks down, and adds up, the wide-ranging costs of violence from acts of hate, looking at everything from tangible ones—such as lost earnings, medical bills, and destroyed property—to micro and macro social costs that are more nebulous to calculate, from the anguish of victims to the resources allocated to policing and incarceration. 

“Martell’s analysis is a good first step in examining the question of what hate costs each and every one of us in economic terms,” says Kenneth Stern, the director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. “We were in desperate need of a methodology to think about what we might consider a ‘hate tax,’ and while Martell’s analysis is looking at one subset of what hate costs us, focusing on hate crime, our hope is that it will spur others to think about, and quantify, the costs of other manifestations of hate.” As Stern writes in the foreword to the report, “If we don’t quantify the cost of a societal problem, it’s less likely we’ll do something to address it.”

“We cannot measure the costs that reflect the ways that hate, and hate crimes, fundamentally changes the structure of our economy and the capabilities of those who comprise it,” Martell notes. “We also continue to experience the ramifications of hate crimes of the past. Hate continues to constrain opportunities and to discourage the full development of our capacities as individuals and productive members of society.”
 

Post Date: 03-14-2023

Rukhsar Balkhi ’23 Spoke with Spectrum News about the Taliban’s Ban on Women’s Education

The news of the Taliban’s ban on women’s and girls’ education hit close to home for Rukhsar Balkhi ’23. “It’s something very personal,” Balkhi said to Spectrum News. “Because I have been through it. I have been in Afghanistan. And I know the value of education as an Afghan woman.” After fleeing Afghanistan in August of 2021, Balkhi matriculated at Bard, where she is a human rights major. Now, she hopes to pursue not only a bachelor’s in human rights, but a master’s degree in international affairs, putting her education to use for the struggle for educational freedom for Afghan women and women worldwide.

Rukhsar Balkhi ’23 Spoke with Spectrum News about the Taliban’s Ban on Women’s Education

The news of the Taliban’s ban on women’s and girls’ education hit close to home for Rukhsar Balkhi ’23. “It’s something very personal,” Balkhi said to Spectrum News. “Because I have been through it. I have been in Afghanistan. And I know the value of education as an Afghan woman.” After fleeing Afghanistan in August of 2021, Balkhi matriculated at Bard, where she is a human rights major. While she never lived under Taliban rule, Balkhi never took her own educational opportunities for granted. “I had a lot of threats,” she said. “But at least I had the freedom to go to university, to go to school, to go to courses.” Now, she hopes to pursue not only a bachelor’s in human rights, but a master’s degree in international affairs, putting her education to use for the struggle for educational freedom for Afghan women and women worldwide.
Watch Now on Spectrum News

Post Date: 01-23-2023

Ian Buruma for Bloomberg: “Was Trump or Brexit the Bigger Mistake?”

Polling shows the British people and Americans are coalescing around the idea that Brexit and Trump were, respectively, mistakes for each country. When it comes to long-lasting impact, however, in Ian Buruma’s view, it’s no contest which is worse. “While Brexit and the election of Trump caused severe shocks to both Britain and the US, it looks like the damage of Brexit will be worse and last longer,” writes Buruma, Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism, for Bloomberg.

Ian Buruma for Bloomberg: “Was Trump or Brexit the Bigger Mistake?”

Polling shows the British people and Americans are coalescing around the idea that Brexit and Trump were, respectively, mistakes for each country. When it comes to long-lasting impact, however, in Ian Buruma’s view, it’s no contest which is worse. “While Brexit and the election of Trump caused severe shocks to both Britain and the US, it looks like the damage of Brexit will be worse and last longer,” writes Buruma, Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism, for Bloomberg. Poor leadership is, in the long run, easier to recover from than a disastrous referendum, he writes, as the latter “cannot be easily undone.” For the United States, “as long as [Trump] does not return for another term in 2024, much of the damage he did can probably be undone.” With Brexit, no matter the change in leadership, “most people in Britain will be worse off and the country will continue to lag behind its neighbors for the foreseeable future.”
Read More in Bloomberg

Post Date: 12-20-2022

Human Rights Events

  • 4/04
    Tuesday

    Tuesday, April 4, 2023
    with speakers June Nemon and leaders from the Stony Run Tenants Union
    Olin, Room 102 5:10 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
    This event is part of the Political Organizing Speaker Series, Spring 2023

    5:10 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Olin, Room 102

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