On the night of June 17, 2015, the tragedy at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church was added to the list of America’s most infamous hate crimes.
The next morning, public officials described our state as “heartbroken” and I think it was a fair assessment. However, more than five years later, South Carolina remains one of only three states in the country that has not passed a hate crime law.
Our inability to convert our grief over Mother Emanuel’s shootings into meaningful legislative action is a form of silence that Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. warned of when he said: “The silence of good people is more dangerous than the brutality of bad people. “
Passing the hate crime bill now back in the legislature represents an opportunity for the good people of South Carolina to speak out loudly and unitedly against the hatred and brutality it generates.
Walmart didn’t just endorse the hate crime law. We are actively supporting the campaign to make it law. Why? Because this is a very personal matter for us.
Facing hate crimes is a way to defend our diverse workforce of 31,613 associates in South Carolina who make Walmart the largest employer in the state. And it is an expression of solidarity with the diverse community of customers who visit our 123 retail stores in the state of Palmetto and shop online with us.
Walmart associates include blacks, whites, Latin Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans. Gays and heterosexuals. Native Americans and newcomers. Some of us build our religious faith around the New Testament, others around the Old Testament or the Quaran. Still others see the faith differently. Our individual policy spans the entire ideological spectrum.
This kind of diversity makes us a stronger and healthier company, but only if combined with inclusion. Like other large companies, we are working hard to make this sense of inclusion part of our culture.
Hate crimes, by contrast, represent the opposite pole of inclusion. They are vile expressions of exclusion, whether in the form of a swastika painted on the wall of a synagogue or in a horrible act of mass murder in a black church. These acts and the intolerance behind them are repugnant to the vast majority of people in South Carolina and the rest of America.
Opponents of the legislation claim that the existing criminal law already covers the crimes described in the hate crime bill. True, but the bill would make the offense more serious when these crimes are directed at a specific person or group of people simply because they are who they are.
The fact that Walmart and the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce are working to pass the hate crime bill reflects the growing desire of companies to become directly involved in social justice issues.
Passing the hate crime bill would accelerate positive changes in South Carolina. This would encourage continued investment here by large corporations, demonstrating that we have abandoned Jim Crow’s legacy. And it would deliver a message to residents of the state of Palmetto of all races, religions, colors, genders, nationalities and sexual orientations.
Kate Mora is regional vice president of Walmart stores in South Carolina.