The saddest and scariest thing to me about these hate crimes is that it has all to do with something beyond your own control. The perpetrators hate you, hurt you not for something you have done or can do, but rather for the sake of you simply being you. I can only imagine how much worse it would be for those who actually have experienced it and have this threat looming over them every day. It's unbelievably scary to me that we live in a world - no, a society - like this. But perhaps we can be empowered by the the fact that the fault lies in the beliefs and norms we have built around ourselves when it comes to race, and not something that is set in stone. I believe this means that we still have the power to turn these assumptions and harmful stereotypes around.