By Patrick R. Riccards
Hateful ideology and the physical manifestation of those beliefs continues to rise. Recent reports also indicate that hate speech and hate-based graffiti has increased by more than 600 percent in recent years.
While organizations like Life After Hate have long focused on helping individuals successfully disengage from violent extremist groups and online hate spaces, we realize that hate speech and hate graffiti also deserves our attention. It puts the safety of communities at risk. It signals that we are willing to accept discrimination. And it is a reminder that hate-based speech and graffiti are the first steps toward hate-based violence.
Yes, offensive speech is protected speech. Our First Amendment provides all of us the ability to say whatever we want to say, think whatever we want to think, and associate with anyone we choose to associate with. But that doesn’t mean that civil society has to accept it. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we need to condone it. In the name of humanity, in the name of civility, in the name of diversity, and in the name of democracy, we need to do what we can to rid our communities of the sorts of hateful words and hateful images intended to divide us and further encourage distrust in our fellow humans.
That’s why Life After Hate officially launched a new national public service campaign, HateEraser. In partnership with law enforcement agencies across the country, Life After Hate is spotlighting the dangers of ideology-based graffiti, while distributing a new product — HateEraser — that first-time hate offenders are required to use during their court-mandated community service.
We do this because we believe that educating offenders on the damage their words and actions cause can prevent them from continuing a life of hate. And we do this because we want to do all we can to educate our fellow Americans that hate speech today can lead to violent hate tomorrow, physically harming the people and communities we all care about.
We believe that HateEraser can change the futures of people motivated by hate and extremist ideologies through education, community service, and helping people alter their path away from a life of continued radical hate. Rather than simply clutch our pearls when a swastika is painted on a synagogue or the N word is scrawled across an AME church, communities can now demand that the practitioners of hate speech must literally do something to clean up their community.
To be clear, this is very real product that is expert at doing the job. Life After Hate developed this initiative in partnership with Omnicom Health Group’s The Purpose Group and the 5,000 dedicated healthcare communications specialists at Omnicom. Under the leadership of The Purpose Group, we developed the first aerosol-gel based formula designed to quickly eradicate hate speech from most surfaces. While I’m not a scientist, I do trust them. According to Savannah Technical College Chemistry Professor Ujjvala Bagal, the unique active ingredients in HateEraser “remove hateful markings as quickly as they were made.”
We’ve partnered with law enforcement agencies across the nation, providing them with cans of HateEraser so they can have offenders take to the streets immediately to rid our communities of hateful words and hateful images. And we have worked with street artists to design the cans, as they seek to defend their art from hateful ideology and inspire change in the communities in which they live.
I’ll be honest, the participation of these artists is key to this effort. Each can being distributed by Life After Hate and The Purpose Group tells a story, as each of 50 designed cans is designed to speak to the importance of acceptance, anti-hate, and empathy. Even street artists like Jax realize we cannot allow the proud tradition of street art to be bastardized by extremist groups and hateful ideology, as they noted, “Hate has no place in our art. And I’m proud to be a part of something that makes real change in my community.”
At its heart, HateEraser works to change the futures of people motivated by hate and extremist ideologies through education, community service, and helping people alter their path away from a life of continued radical hate.
No, HateEraser will not end hate speech, hateful graffiti, or ideological violence across the United States and in our local communities. But it is an important development in signaling that we will not accept that such hate is to be permanently embedded on our walls, our public transportation, or our streets.
We are often fond of saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” HateEraser stands as the latest step from Life After Hate and the growing number of people who reject hate and ideological extremism. For 14 years, Life After Hate has done what it can to help individual successfully disengage from lives of violent hate. With HateEraser, we can hopefully help individuals shed their hateful ideologies before it manifests itself into harm and violence against others.
We know there is life after hate. Ridding communities of ideology-based graffiti while helping non-violent offenders begin to see the error in their ways and thinking helps us further put that belief to action.
