No one's "struggling with the concept of hate crimes." They're pointing out that the concept is retarded.
It's a meaningless "enhancement" to something that's already a crime. You can assault someone for a wide variety of reasons. We call that "motive." There is no reason to punish "I caught him fucking my wife" and "I hate niggers" differently when the crime committed is the same and the outcome is the same. You still beat the shit out of somebody outside the context of self-defense, no matter what your motive was. Assault is a crime. Why you committed assault shouldn't matter. And for the smart-asses out there, defending yourself doesn't constitute assault.
Unfortunately, "I caught a black guy fucking my wife" will still be treated as a hate crime even though the "hate" -- which is entirely justified imho -- has nothing to do with race. That is what people are "struggling" with.
Never mind the fact that you will never see a minority get run up the flag pole on a "hate crime" charge if his victim was white. Is that a crime on the books that they can actually use? Sure. Will they ever do so? Fuck no. "Hate crime" legislation is used exclusively to discourage white people from defending themselves. If they actually applied it equally you'd never see a nigger in prison without a hate crime enhancement on his sentence.