The Effects of Hate

Evidence of Potential Outcomes or Longer-Term Effects

Some incidents in the CAH database note that the impacted individual experiences a change in behavior and/or participation, a deterioration of their emotional and/or physical health, and a change in their performance at work or school. The database shows changes in behavior because the hate incidents tend to cluster around several courses of action including increasing security (purchasing security cameras, fences, extra locks, or motion-sensor light) around respondents’ homes, preventing children from playing outside, being more aware or fearful of one’s surroundings when out on the street, changing one’s actions while outside, or relocating. In the Hate Incidence Poll, 15 percent confirmed that some experience a desire to change behavior to prevent future incidents. An example of this behavior appears in the CAH database. A report to the CAH database reads that a woman who owns a salon received repeated threatening, racist letters as well as vandalism to her business. She reinforced the security of the premises, stating “Those locks are on that door because I'm scared. I am. I don't know what is going to happen next.” Additionally, some parents in the CAH database whose homes have been impacted prevent their children from playing outside. An individual reported that their neighbor repeatedly threatened them with a pellet gun or hurled racist slurs. The parents grew afraid of what the neighbor might do and said, “They were afraid to allow their sons to play in the yard, and [the father] felt helpless to protect them.”

Figure 6a. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total across all respondents

Bar chart depicting outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate across all respondents

Figures 6a-6d reflect responses from the following question in the Hate Incidence Poll:

Q61. What would you say was the outcome of the hate-related incidents you have experienced? What were the short-term or long-term effects?

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Figure 6b. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total vs Black respondents

Bar chart depicting outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate across all respondents versus Black respondents

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Figure 6c. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total vs Hispanic respondents

Bar chart depicting outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate across all respondents versus Hispanic respondents

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Figure 6d. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total vs Arab / Middle Eastern respondents

Bar chart depicting outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate across all respondents versus Arab/Middle Eastern respondents

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Figure 6a. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total across all respondents

Figures 6a-6d reflect responses from the following question in the Hate Incidence Poll:

Q61. What would you say was the outcome of the hate-related incidents you have experienced? What were the short-term or long-term effects?

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Figure 6b. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total vs Black respondents

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Figure 6c. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total vs Hispanic respondents

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Figure 6d. Reported outcomes from experiences of incidents of hate - Total vs Arab / Middle Eastern respondents

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Some individuals in the CAH database change their actions while outside, which involves no longer wearing certain religious items, listening to music, only speaking English instead of a native language, or no longer wanting to show affection to a partner. An individual reported, “Students have called me ‘ch***’ several times while walking past them. I've also had a student spit on my feet. Consequently, I listen to music every time I'm walking to and from work.” In another individual report, the daughter of the reporter’s friend was repeatedly harassed by children at school who shouted, “Build that Wall” and told her that she would be deported. The reporter stated, “These types of incidents have continued to happen and my friend's daughter is so afraid of the comments, that she's asked her mother to only speak English when they are out together.”

In another CAH incident, an interracial couple was harassed by a man who didn’t think that a White woman and a Black man should be together. When they showed affection towards each other, the man told them to stop. The couple brushed the incident off; however, the woman stated, “I'm still a little afraid to show public affection to my partner because of this incident.”

Some individuals in the CAH database decide to relocate from the neighborhood where they experience hate. An individual reported, “[an] African American pastor was spit on and harassed to the point she left town out of fear for safety.” These changes tend to occur most commonly after repeated harassment or multiple hate incidents from the same source, although single, severe incidents can still trigger these effects. In the Hate Incidence Poll, 9 percent of individuals also reported wanting to move or relocate following an incident.

Changes in participation, on the other hand, tend to occur after a single incident in the CAH database (e.g., an Uber driver being reluctant to ever drive again after facing a verbal assault from a passenger; churchgoers staying home from church after vandalism; a couple leaving town after their property was spray-painted with abusive language; a person deleting a comment in support of a political candidate after written abusive language). Experiencing repeated harassment often leads to people not wanting to leave their home, according to several instances in the CAH database (e.g. “she was utterly traumatized and no longer wants to leave the house by herself, as a black-haired, olive-skinned Muslim woman,” “Due to the stress and fear, I really don’t leave the house”). In the poll, 10 percent stated that they changed their participation in their community and 9 percent stated that they changed their participation online.

Noted effects in the CAH database of a hate incident on a respondent’s physical health range from concussions to stab wounds to broken bones, to even more serious injuries that require major surgeries such as facial reconstruction, amputations, or removal of an eye. For example, a man and his friend were attacked and called a gay slur. After the attack, he was told by doctors that he may lose sight in his left eye. In the poll, 6 percent of respondents stated that they experienced long term health or body effects following an incident.

Effects on emotional health often center around fear. In the CAH database, “A local woman said she's now scared just to walk down the street after being violently attacked in [a city] for being gay.” In another example, an individual with her friends was eating ice cream when the group was attacked by another patron who verbally abused them until they ran away. The woman stated that following the incident, “If I feel like anyone looks at me in a strange way I get scared that they will jump at me, try to rip my hijab off, or yell discriminatory, racist expletives my way.” In several cases the two are linked, with respondents’ emotional health suffering after a physical attack. The Hate Incidence Poll discovered that depression and anxiety among impacted individuals were represented at 18 percent and 15 percent of the respondents respectively.

The CAH database shows performance at work or school is affected either because the incident occurs at their school or place of work or because the individual is impacted by an incident that happened elsewhere. In the Hate Incidence Poll, 12 percent of individuals report that their performance at work and/or school is affected. Respondents miss work due to physical and emotional health consequences from hate incidents. For example, an individual was attacked and called homophobic slurs. The physical ramifications of the attack “has rendered him unable to work for the next month.”

Positive and Negative Long-Term Actions

As our polling shows, hate incidents are too common, but we are also seeing communities reach out and provide support, sometimes encouraging collective action. In our analysis, long-term actions capture the degree to which individuals in the CAH database are taking lasting action driven by community or solidarity-based support. There are three common themes including a desire to clean-up after the incident, provide crowd-sourced fundraising for the impacted individual, or promote restorative justice either institutionally or independently.

Community Support through Clean-Up

Incidents are coded as clean-up when they meet the following definition: An incident in which community or friends and family support an individual through helping to clean-up after an incident has occurred. All hate incidents of this nature involve damage to property and/or written abusive language. Some of the incidents are less direct, such as those that involve witnesses removing recruitment flyers that a hate group has placed on a campus or in a community. In one incident, during the Women’s March, an individual wearing a Pepe the Frog (an alt-right symbol) hoodie was placing “It’s Okay to Be White” stickers on various public surfaces. The message often serves as a tagline and message for white supremacist recruitment groups. An individual witnessing the incident peeled off the stickers as he walked along.

However, some CAH incidents involve a more concerted effort than removing posters. In another incident, the n-word had been spray-painted on a picnic table bench at a playground of a school for teenage moms. A family returned to the playground and painted over the whole picnic table with pink paint. In a particularly targeted CAH incident, an individual vandalized a woman’s car with hateful graffiti including “KKK,” “We here,” and “White power,” as well as destroyed her tires. In response, a used tire dealership in her community replaced her tires and her neighbors removed the graffiti for her. The neighbors wanted to convey in their response that hate will not happen, “not in my neighborhood, not in my town.”

Some community members in CAH incidents voice fear, discomfort or disgust, or grief or sadness as their reason for supporting the impacted community member. In one incident, phrases such as “Illegals, ICE is coming,” “They’re called dreamers for a reason,” “ANTIF***” and, “Build a wall, deport them all,” were chalked on the sidewalk of a common area at a university. A student association elected official posted the graffiti on social media and gathered a group of students that washed off the chalking. She said, “I think they were trying to intimidate us…. This was intended to make people uncomfortable…But I’m also really proud of the students that came out at 1 am to wash off the chalk.”

These CAH incidents show the initiative that communities feel compelled to stand up against hate in their town and their community.

Fundraising Support

Occasionally, the CAH database includes incidents that note when communities offer fundraising support to impacted individuals that help with clean-up, medical bills, or other results of the incident. In most occasions, the impacted individual or their immediate family set up the fund (primarily GoFundMe) for themselves and their friends, family, and community to contribute. In another incident, the community hosted a fundraiser for the impacted individual. Most CAH incidents that call for fundraising initiatives are based on physical harm occurring, and thus, the resources are mostly provided for medical care. For example, in one incident, a woman was with her girlfriend at a fast-food restaurant when five individuals walked in and made statements calling her a “d***,” “gay,” and that she should keep her “hoe in check.” Then, the aggressors violently beat her. Her face was swollen, her front tooth was knocked out, and there was possible permanent damage to her face. A GoFundMe page was set up to support the impacted individual with her medical bills.

Additionally, some CAH incidents state that there are permanent long-term emotional or physical health effects on individuals’ livelihood. In one incident, an individual requested a GoFundMe to help the couple move from their house that was targeted with vicious vandalism, showing that the effect of the incident was enough to require moving and that moving may have not been a possibility without the community crowd-funding.

Restorative Justice

The Communities Against Hate principles include, “Support and promote a restorative justice approach to addressing incidents of hate.” Our analysis looks for instances of restorative justice throughout our database, coding the entry as “Restorative Justice” under long-term actions if the incident includes an aggressor who reconciles their action by working with the affected community or the offended individuals and learns more about the bias that influenced their hateful actions. Of those CAH incidents that mention a restorative justice approach, some of the approaches are simple, such as an apology, though some offer a more in-depth court-ordered or administration-mandated cultural sensitivity training. For example, in an incident, a man walking his dog got into a physical altercation with a man who said, “F*** you, n***** and your little Chihuahua dog.” When police responded, they said the aggressor would be a candidate for the Restorative Court. The Court provides an alternative to prosecution through which the aggressors meet the survivors and take responsibility for their crime. The man who was attacked agreed to a supervised meeting in which the aggressor admitted he used the N-word and felt “deep remorse.” The aggressor then completed the rest of his restorative court commitments, including 40 hours of community service at an organization with people of color and writing five reflective essays.

Restorative justice CAH incidents often include some reference to language, imagery, or statements to indicate that the incident was bias motivation; however, some of the incidents also feature an advocacy or community-based organization designation. In one report, an individual shared that he had experienced multiple incidents. In this instance, a Sikh American man was shouted at by a Black teen, “F***ing Osama! F***ing Osama!” In the past, the man had chosen not to respond to individuals who called him racial names and had regretted his inaction. This time, he chose to approach the individual himself and talk with the teen about what he had said. At first the teen brushed him off, but the Sikh American persisted, saying, “You know, people in this country used to say hateful stuff to your grandparents.” At this point, the man says that the teen realized his misguided insult and apologized to the man more sincerely. This example shows how restorative justice can be a tool for those who experience hate to act as social change agents.

Negative Long-Term Actions

Unfortunately, not all long-term actions and consequences related to hate incidents are positive. Many of the negative actions take the form of retaliation for reporting. Some CAH incidents at work or school escalate to serious consequences for the person who is targeted. For example, an individual reported being harassed by his coworkers who insulted him and called him names based on his disability. They would say such things as “I can’t believe you even work here” and “We don’t want you here.” These hateful comments caused him stress, leading to mental episodes while at work. When he reported their behavior to a supervisor, all the supervisors began to mock him as well. Eventually he was terminated for these episodes. In several CAH cases, respondents were fired for bringing hate incidents to light. At one company a White employee repeatedly referred to a Black employee with slurs such as “n****,” “boy,” and “monkey.” When the Black employee attempted to report the behavior to management, management promoted the White employee and fired the Black employee. Some CAH respondents quit over hate incidents, such as in one incident where “A hangman’s noose was found… prompting an African-American employee to quit.” Others are afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation, such as being fired from a job.

The same inadequate response on behalf of administrators can sometimes be seen in CAH incidents occurring in schools as well, including short-term punishments that do not address the underlying cause of the hate incident. For example, in one incident where a student was called “A black n***,” the student reported that the aggressor student “was given a 2 day in-school suspension. Upon returning he was allowed to participate in the school pep rally. No measures have been taken to address racial intolerance.” Some students experience being retaliated against after parental complaints. For example, a parent stated, “I made many complaints that were substantiated… They retaliated by terminating his enrollment stating my advocacy was the reason.” In some circumstances, teachers are part of the cause or are the cause of the hate incident. One individual reported, “The constant chants of ‘BUILD THAT WALL!’ and ‘LOCK HER UP’ were what echoed through the halls and the classrooms. His AP HISTORY TEACHER WAS LEADING THE CHANTS.”