Well, that didn't take long.
You, sir, are incorrect. Allow me to demonstrate why. Consider the following three scenarios:
Scenario One) Joe is upset that Steve is with his (Joe's) now ex-girlfriend. Joe observes Steve for two weeks, sneaks into his apartment, waits for him, kills him, and then hides the body.
Scenario Two) Joe comes home and finds Steve in bed with his (Joe's) girlfriend. Joe is outraged and attacks Steve. The two wrestle around fighting each other. Joe eventually breaks Steve's neck, killing him.
Scenario Three) Joe is walking home one night. He sees something going on in an alley. He walks down to investigate and finds Steve raping a woman at gunpoint. Steve sees Joe and fires the gun at Joe, grazing his shoulder near his neck. Joe (carrying a legally liscensed firearm because he's a security guard) returns fire and shoots Steve in the brain, killing him.
In all three scenarios, Joe has taken the life of Steve.
All three scenarios are different crimes and carry different punishments. The first is pre-meditated murder, the second is a crime of pashion / manslaughter, and the third is self-defense (may not even be a crime).
Thus, we have established that how victims are targeted matters.
The law does not exist in a vacuum. Many of you may feel that the justice system is broken and that details are irrelevant. This is absolutely not the case. The law cares about intent. The law cares about
why a crime took place. Proving intent can be the difference between manslaughter and murder... or even more. Consider scenario 3. Imagine if it were discovered that the situation were pre-arranged by Joe to make an excuse for killing Steve? Joe would be treated as a pre-meditated murdered, not a self-defender.
So, when it comes to hate crimes, we as a society have deemed it a more heinous crime when a victim is targeted exclusively by their status as a minority.
Hate crime legislation is valid and should be enacted. It's a helluva thing to harm another person not because they stole your woman or because they have money and you're desperate, but only because they happen to be a different color (etc.).