What is Hate

I am an avid consumer of information about what is happening in the world. What has struck me over the past few years has been what I have perceived to be an increase in hate related incidents; internationally and locally. I took the time to investigate this perception and unfortunately my perception has been validated.
We have seen large scale hate crimes and incidents; The 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda: Decades of hate speech and propaganda, particularly via radio, demonized the Tutsi minority and incited the Hutu majority to kill them, resulting in the systematic murder of more than one million people in less than three months. The Srebrenica Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina: During the Bosnian War (1992-1995), nationalist propaganda in Serbian-controlled media demonized Bosnian Muslims, leading to the murder of 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995. The Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Myanmar: A campaign of hate and misinformation, including derogatory and dehumanizing language by state officials and military leaders, has been linked to systematic atrocities such as killing, rape, and forced displacement against the Rohingya Muslim minority, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh.
On a more close to home level, we are seeing an increase in hate related crimes; There is a significant surge in anti-Asian attacks, including verbal harassment, physical assaults, and even murder, often linked to rhetoric that blamed Asian people for the spread of the virus. Acts of hate targeting Jewish people continue globally, including the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history, and a recent stabbing of an elderly Jewish woman at a grocery store in Ottawa amongst other incidents. Hate crimes motivated by bias against individuals' sexual orientation or gender identity, such as the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016 and homophobic insults and physical attacks in other countries, are a pervasive issue. Incidents range from the Charleston church massacre in the US, where a white supremacist murdered nine Black parishioners, to widespread online and offline attacks targeting people of African descent, Roma people in Europe, and other minority groups. Anti-Muslim Hate (Islamophobia) incidents like threats, property damage (e.g., arson attacks on mosques), and hate speech, often intensified by extremist narratives.
And this led me to ask the question; “why”. What my research has shown is the following: Police-reported hate crimes have risen sharply in various regions. For example, in Canada, the number of police-reported hate crimes more than doubled in the four years leading up to 2023. The rise of social media and the 24-hour news cycle have accelerated the spread of hateful content. Algorithms often prioritize emotionally charged content, and the relative anonymity of online spaces makes it easier for people to express hate. Major events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical crises, have been linked to spikes in hate directed at specific groups, such as anti-Asian, anti-Jewish, and anti-Muslim hate incidents. The frequent exposure to hateful rhetoric in media and by public figures can make hate seem more normal or acceptable, which lowers social norms around acceptable behaviour and makes it easier for people to say or do hateful things.
Join us for a discussion on hate where we are going to explore the following; its causes (Why do people use hate speech?), impacts (How does it affect victims and communities?), personal experiences (Have you seen/felt it?), responses (How can we challenge it?), and responsibility (Who should address it?), focusing on empathy, understanding motivations, and promoting positive action rather than just facts.