Coping with Hate and Intolerance by Avery Elizabeth Hurt

Author:Avery Elizabeth Hurt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

More Speech

Another way to fight hate online is by countering it with better messages. You don’t have to respond directly to, say, a racist joke or a post demeaning immigrants or LGBTQ+ people. Just find some positive information about the issue and post that on your feed. A link to a story about immigrants who are improving their new community or a gay couple who have adopted a baby can counter the negative perceptions other people may be spreading about these groups. The ACLU placed an ad in Times Square that showed a Muslim woman in a hijab standing in front of a building painted with graffiti saying, “Muslims, go home.” The image was followed by images of people holding signs that said, “Support Freedom of Religion” “Love thy Neighbor,” and the message, “Fight Hate Speech with More Speech” Individuals can use their social media accounts to fight hate speech with more speech by posting positive encouraging messages (such as the signs in the ad), positive images of people who are often the victims of hate, or uplifting, inclusive messages. Good messages can go viral just as easily as hateful messages, and the impact can be just as strong. In their book

Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Internet, Abraham Foxman and Christopher Wolf tell the story of a post that appeared on Facebook in 2010 announcing a new event to take place over two weeks that July. It was “Kill a Jew Day," which encouraged followers to commit acts of violence toward Jews wherever they saw them. Followers of the site responded with many hate-filled, anti-Semitic rants and screeds (long speeches or writings). Facebook responded to complaints and disabled the page. (Speech that incites violence is not protected by the US Constitution or Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.) But before that process was complete, the Facebook community mounted a response of its own, fighting hate speech with more speech. Another event page was quickly posted. This one was “One Million Strong Against Kill a Jew Day" Responses like this are actually quite powerful. They show in no uncertain terms that there is more love than hate in the world and that for every hateful post there are millions of people who will stand up and speak out against it.

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