March 29, 2024

The Humanevangelist: Let 2020 Be the Year Humanists Lead the Way against Hate


Photo by Michael Fenton on Unsplash

We have to stand up, speak up, link up, and act.


By Clay Farris Naff


Forget about losing five pounds or hitting the gym before dawn. This year, we must redouble our resolve to quench hate. We have to stand up, speak up, link up, and act.

History shows that violence generally climbs in election years, and given the media-fueled polarization of Americans just now, 2020 bodes to be especially combustible. Unlike 2001, when hate crimes peaked in the aftermath of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 assaults, this time the threat of violence is largely homegrown.

Since the day Donald Trump was elected president, Far-Right violence has been on the rise in the US. Hate crimes nearly tripled on November 9, 2016. Hate-fueled assaults rose nearly 8 percent in the following year and, according to FBI statistics, jumped by about 12 percent in 2018. The bureau reports that the targets were mostly black, Hispanic, Jewish, and Muslim. Numbers for 2019 aren’t yet in, but the year has been spattered by deadly assaults on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.

Hate-driven attacks remain a tiny fraction of overall violent crime in the US (5,565 incidents out of 1.2 million violent offenses reported in 2018), but by design they have an outsize impact. Whose design? In some cases, the assailants.

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