Over this past year, the national media coverage has improved little. LIFE magazine did a retrospective of 1999, covering the shootings at Jewish Community Center. While they went into detail about the gun used and hate crimes occurring in other cities, there was no mention of my brother. We had hoped that the prominent politicians who offered us condolences would mention Joseph in their public statements to the media, but they, too, forgot him when talking about the events of August 10. What has been particularly hurtful to our family is the refusal of the media to feature Joseph's life, and the impact it had on our family and community.
Hate crimes are different than crimes generally.
Hate crimes assault the core essence of who we are, and so the crime is personal. Yet, despite our repeated public appearances, the public knows little of Joseph Ileto and the role that race played in his death. More than once, we were hopeful when newspapers or other media interviewed our family, but we were then disappointed to find when the article was published that the editor had overwritten it to change the focus. Our family will persevere. We strongly feel that we must encourage our community to join us in speaking out against hate crimes, lest no one will realize that hate crimes against the APA community are a problem that needs to be addressed.