After releasing a report earlier this month detailing an increase in hate incidents in Los Angeles County in 2023, the Commission on Human Relations (LACCHR) has initiated a new campaign to promote unity in specific neighborhoods within each supervisorial district that have been “hot spots” for hate.
The “Signs of Solidarity” grassroots campaign was launched by the commission’s LA vs Hate program in Westlake. Posters and yard signs created by local artists with community input, containing clear messages against hate, were distributed to residents and small businesses to display on their property.
This year’s campaign is building on LA vs Hate’s 2023 Summer of Solidarity art series with five murals painted throughout the county to celebrate inclusion, convey the history of groups that have experienced hate and discrimination and promote cross-cultural and interracial solidarity.
Antonio Cowser, LACCHR public information officer, said that Westlake is one of the “hot spots” where hate activity has increased. It’s one of the locations LA vs Hate is focusing on during the initial first wave of the campaign.
“We’re going to have a summer rollout that’ll be in [the San Fernando Valley],” Cowser explained. “Then we will narrow it down based on the data on the more specified communities or neighborhoods that we want to target with more localized signage and posters.”
These locations are determined using data from the commission’s first annual Hate Incident Report, which is based on the reporting of hate incidents documented in 2022 and 2023. In a previous interview, Cowser told the
San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol
that the report includes hate crimes and hate incidents to provide a full picture of hate activity.
A hate crime is a crime against a person, group or property motivated by the victim’s real or perceived protected social group, which can be their nationality, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity.
A hate incident is an action or behavior motivated by hate but is not a crime, including name-calling, insults, displaying hate material on your own property, posting hate material that does not result in property damage and distribution of materials with hate messages in public places.
According to the report, hate incidents rose 35% from 2022 to 2023 – incidents that took place at schools, colleges and universities rose from 59 to 197; incidents of white supremacist ideology increased from 33 to 74; and Middle East conflict-related incidents grew from two to 45.
In July 2023 in Studio City, two Middle Eastern girls, 13 and 10 years old, were separately accosted by classmates who demanded to know whether they supported Israel. When the girls refused to engage in the conversation, they were called “terrorists.”
It will take a year before the LACCHR releases its report on hate activity in 2024 due to the large amount of effort necessary to compile the data, but given the times we live in – with President Donald Trump promoting anti-immigration rhetoric – Cowser explained how crucial it is for the community to stick together.
“I think it’s important … to give people a sense of empowerment so they don’t have to feel hopeless in this moment and to know that they have the support of their communities, local leaders and community leaders,” Cowser said.
For more information on the campaign, go to
https://www.lavshate.org/signs-of-solidarity
.
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LA vs Hate Launches New Campaign to Promote Unity in Areas Targeted by Hate
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