The recent shooting in Pittsburgh has brought forth an important question; if you are not combating hate speech, are you accepting it?
Hours before gunman Robert Bowers opened fire inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, he published a social media post that reflected his feelings about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).
Bowers wrote, “HIAS likes to bring invaders that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I’m going in.”
This was not his first sign of hateful nature. When further examining Bowers’ social media accounts, there were several pictures of Glock handguns in their cases and derogatory remarks about refugees, Jewish people and President Donald Trump.
Bowers is just one example of how we have let hate fester and rear its ugly head when it was given the opportunity.
What do we do when we see or hear people talk in such ugly and hateful ways?
There are times where we have confronted the person and spoke our minds. But there are the times when we have brushed it off and let it fall by the wayside because we no longer felt like fighting the battle. We have let it slip our minds out of fear, ignorance and/or exhaustion.
There are ways for you to combat hate and not feel like you are fighting alone.
Dig deeper into the issues that divide people and educate yourself. There are tons of things that divide this country like inequality, immigration and homosexuality, to name just a few.
Speak up. You have a First Amendment right too, and hate speech must be exposed and denounced.
The most important thing to do is begin confronting those who abuse this right because tolerance, fundamentally, is a personal decision. It comes from what we learned and embraced as kids. We all have the power to change our attitude in order to overcome our ignorance and fears.
It is our job to listen to one another, address the concerns with facts and reunite our fractured country. Everyone in every community should feel a sense of welcome and safety. Overall, we can disagree on many important issues, but the one issue that we can agree on is that hate speech should not be tolerated or accepted.
The homeland security slogan of “see something, say something” does not cover all the forms of hate “speech.” If we hear, read or see something, it is our job to say something about it.
It is our duty, not as Americans, but as humans, to say something. Because if we notice it and refuse to stand up and say something, those hateful words will ultimately become hateful acts, again and again.
