i think thats why it might conceivably not be a hate crime even though they used racist slurs presumably they came to the conclusion that the teenagers assaulted the couple because the man honked his horn at them not because they were white whether they used racial slurs during the crime is probably less important than their motivations for committing it with regards to hate crime law a white man getting in a bar fight with a black man over a spilled drink or something for example and calling him a nigger i assume would not be classified as a hate crime