Why is a hate crime considered worse than the same crime with no "hateful" overtones? (PLEASE READ DETAILS).

I understand the heinous nature of, say, beating a man because he is black, gay or Jewish. It is a terrible thing, however, what I do not understand is why it is considered worse to beat up a man for being black than it is simply to beat up a man for no reason at all. I have always wondered why a hate crime is considered worse than doing the same thing with no “hateful” motivation.

In other words, why is it considered less bad for me to hurt someone because of a reason other than those covered by the term “hate crime”?

Note: I would say that hurting someone is always hateful, but I have put hateful in quotation marks in the above question to denote a hate crime and non-hate crime.