This OTYCD entry originally posted in August 2017.

 

Read, memorize, and act on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s piece, 10 Ways to Fight Hate.

 

Posted after the events of Charlottesville, the SPLC piece gives you ten things you can do to resist the cultural changes that neo-Nazis and white supremacists are trying to create with the passive, if not sometimes active, help of Trump and his administration.

 

The full list is:

Act

Join Forces

Support the Victims

Speak Up

Educate Yourself

Create an Alternative

Pressure Leaders

Stay Engaged

Teach Acceptance

Dig Deeper

 

The most important thing is to act–to do something, to not sit mute in the face of hate. The SPLC put “act” first on the list for a reason. Silence reads as compliance and even approval to those who want to advance hate and intolerance. You have to say or do something when it shows its face to you.

 

If you are white, it is double-super-extra-mega-important for you to act. People of color and minorities have been carrying the burden of pushing back for too long. It is on white people to wield their privilege like a weapon for dismantling this corrosive bullshit.

 

You cannot stand by and assume someone else will pick up the slack. It is on you to do something. It is always on you to do something. Always. 

 

Know also that the Nazis did not stop until they were stop. Remember appeasement? Think of how we remember Neville Chamberlain? Yeah, don’t be Neville Chamberlain. You lose now AND you lose later.

 

The only way you win when dealing with Nazis, fascists, and those who would carry their banners is to stop them right away. Give them no quarter and no comfort. Shut them down, just like the people of Boston shut down the so-called Free Speech Rally on August 19, when at least 20,000 anti-racist protestors showed up to find 20 neo-Nazis, fascists, and white supremacists.

 

Read the SPLC’s Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide:

https://www.splcenter.org/20170814/ten-ways-fight-hate-community-response-guide

 

Donate to the SPLC:

https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=463

 

Like its Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SPLCenter

 

Follow the SPLC on Twitter:

@splcenter

 

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