---
title: "‘With Hate-Fueled Violence, We All Lose’"
date: 2024-12-06T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/with-hate-fueled-violence-we-all-lose"
section: Articles
---
# ‘With Hate-Fueled Violence, We All Lose’

*December 6, 2024* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10)


> New Course, Inspired by Life of Richard Collins III, Aims to Understand—and Stop—Hate Crimes

*Lt Collins Plaza 11212024 DS 1105 1920x1080 — A new class inspired by the late Lt. Richard Collins III, who is memorialized on campus in the plaza at left, teaches students about hate crimes in the U.S. Below, students in the class learn how white nationalist groups spread their ideologies online.*

Jonathan Kitching ’25 arrived at the University of Maryland with the feeling he was reaching academic goals even higher than those his teachers in rural North Carolina had encouraged. But walking around campus in his earliest days as a Terp, he came across the Lt. Richard Collins III Plaza near Annapolis Hall, and, after googling who the plaza memorialized, felt a wave of sorrow.

“It’s one thing to intellectualize about hatred—it’s another thing to actually see” the place where violence happened “and be able to close your eyes and imagine that,” said Kitching.

The plaza memorializes the life of [Collins](https://today.umd.edu/hundreds-gather-to-dedicate-lt-richard-collins-iii-plaza), an Army-bound Bowie State University student who was killed at UMD by a white Maryland student in 2017. This was condemned by the university as an act of hate. Now, Collins’ life is the inspiration for a new class that examines hate crimes and their prevention.

\[[*Hundreds Gather to Dedicate Lt. Richard Collins III Plaza*](https://today.umd.edu/hundreds-gather-to-dedicate-lt-richard-collins-iii-plaza)\]

“It’s a course that highlights the legacy of Lt. Collins to talk about history, and also to get us to a place where we can talk about hope and what a policy agenda would look like so that hate crimes and hate don’t exist,” said Rashawn Ray, professor of sociology and one of the instructors of “Hate Crimes in the U.S.: What Lt. Richard Collins III Can Teach Us About History, Hope and Healing.”


*students in class look at screen showing graphic: A Reddit Conversation Thread — Photo by Riley N. Sims*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Sociology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/sociology), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [College of Behavioral and Social Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-behavioral-and-social-sciences)