Prof. Arjun Singh Sethi will discuss his new book, American Hate: Survivors Speak Out (The New Press, August 2018), a moving and timely collection from people impacted by hate speech and crimes before and after the 2016 presidential election.
American Hate, offers 14 powerful, unfiltered testimonials from survivors of hate. They detail the ugly attacks they suffered and their psychological aftermath; the fear they now live with; and their anger at seeing bullying, discrimination, and violence rise because of the Trump administration’s bigoted rhetoric and policies. While these personal accounts are upsetting, the landscape they describe is nevertheless hopeful. We see communities coming together to support survivors of hate, activists reaching across traditional divides to help one another, and survivors working to make the US a better place for them and their children.
We hear from the family of Khalid Jabara, who was murdered in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a man who had previously harassed and threatened them because they were Arab-American; from Jeanette Vizguerra, an undocumented mother of four who took sanctuary in a Denver church in February 2017 because she feared deportation; and from Taylor Dumpson, a young black woman who was elected student body president at American University only to find nooses hanging across campus on her first day in office.
Sethi also provides practical advice for resisting hate and combating its ugly rise. He discusses what steps elected officials, law enforcement, schools and universities, the media, and technology companies must take to address hate.
