be a law against cross burning, and thus I would be protected should RQ come burn a cross in my pasta loving yard. Of course, the likelihood of that happening to me rather than a black person is minute, so the result is the same, but without a need for meeting a requirement of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

It's a valid point, but the result is the same. Unfortunately not all hate crimes have such a narrow classification as cross burning. I'm not likely to get a minor beat down (much less severe than this case) for being Italian or white, but there is that risk for solely being black, gay, Muslim, etc. So how do you design a narrow focused law to address that? You can't practically, IMO.