A group of community activists joined ethnic media reporters in El Cajon Dec 10 to discuss strategies for responding to hate. Community building across racial, religious, and ethnic lines is key to combatting hate violence, say community leaders. - Sunita Sohrabji photo

 

Is It Possible to Stop Hate?
By Sunita Sohrabji

 

El Cajon, CA: A group of community leaders joined reporters from the ethnic press here Dec 9 to discuss strategies for mitigating hate.

Hate violence has risen to unprecedented levels over the past three years. The web portal Stop AAPI Hate has collected over 11,000 reports of bias-motivated crimes and incidents. The Council on American-Islamic Relations says it has received 1,283 requests for help and reports of bias since the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel, a rise of 216%. Jewish Americans continue to be the number one targets of hate, according to 2022 FBI Uniform Crime Report data.

“Combatting hate requires collaboration across all ethnic groups,” said Ethnic Media Services President Julian Do. EMS, along with CAIR San Diego and Catalyst, organized the event.

Tazheen Nizami, executive

director of CAIR, San Diego

Tazheen Nizami, executive director of CAIR San Diego, echoed Do’s remarks. “We must work to build communities that are trustful and respectful of each other,” she said. “We see the need for community building. The Muslim community has had a heck of a time in the past couple of months. We were not able to share information which builds trust,” she said.

The community leaders agreed to meet every quarter to continue a dialogue across multiple communities.

This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the  California State Library  in partnership with the  California Department of Social Services  and the  California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs  as part of the  Stop the Hate  program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to  CA vs Hate .