Hate studies

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Hate studies is an interdisciplinary academic field focusing on the causes, effects, and prevention of manifestations of hatred, such as microaggressions, hate speech, hate crime, terrorism, and genocide, that target individuals based on hostility towards their race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, social class, disability, or other perceived conditions or identity categories.

Contents

It may interest scholars, academic researchers, practitioner-experts, human rights leaders, policymakers, NGO/INGO leaders, and many others.

Origins

Hate studies developed from the civil rights movement in the United States. [1] The interdisciplinary Institute of Hate Studies was founded at Gonzaga University, a Jesuit Catholic institution located in Spokane, Washington, in 1992, [2] [ dubious ] and the Gonzaga Institute for Action Against Hate was founded in 1998 to "fight hate through education, research, and advocacy", as a response to growing concerns about increasing levels of hate crimes, hate groups, and online hate speech, with the aim of facilitating an interdisciplinary study of the causes, effects, and prevention of hate in society. [3] The institute began to publish the annual peer-reviewed Journal of Hate Studies in 2002, and Gonzaga University has hosted three "International Conferences on Hate Studies" in 2004, 2011, and 2013. [4]

Other universities have added similar courses to their curricula, and the field of hate studies has now expanded globally. [2] [1] In 2014 the University of Leicester launched the "Centre for Hate Studies," which grew out of the "Leicester Hate Crime Project". The centre's continuing professional development program provides training on hate crime commission, prevention, and victimization, based on academic studies, policy, and victim statements. [5] In 2018 Bard College founded the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, with Ken Stern as its director. [6]

Since 2013, the International Network for Hate Studies (INHS), has arranged a global forum for academics, policy experts, and practitioners to share knowledge and research findings about hate crime and related issues. Their website states that the study of hate "needs a multi-disciplinary and international focus as well as one which examines local and jurisdiction-specific causes and responses." The Network hosts an online blog, an online library for researchers, and various collaborative workshops, and organizes an international conference every two years, the first of which occurred in 2014 at the University of Sussex School of Law. [4] [7]

In 2014, Palgrave Macmillan began to publish the "Palgrave Hate Studies Series". [4]

Scope

Kenneth Stern, an American attorney and an author, defines hate studies as "inquiries into the human capacity to define, and then dehumanize or demonize, an 'other', and the processes which inform and give expression to, or can curtail, control or combat, that capacity." [8] Hate studies is an interdisciplinary field, with a scope which is not fully agreed or defined, [9] but includes the study of hostility towards identity categories based on race (racism), culture (cultural racism), religion (Islamophobia and antisemitism), ethnicity, and nationality (xenophobia), socio-economic class (classism), and sex and gender identity (homophobia and transphobia). [10] [11]

In A continuum of hate: delimiting the field of hate studies, Jennifer Schweppe and Barbara Perry describe a "continua of hate" from the 'banal' to the 'barbaric', including microaggressions, hate speech, hate crime, terrorism, and genocide, and the interplay between these concepts. The authors point out several common features of all of these actions; they are based on victims' identities; they reinforce the marginality of their victims; they do harm to their victims; and victims are collective. In all except the case of microaggressions, these concepts are legally defined in most western countries. [9]

Elizabeth Thweat states that defining hate itself presents difficulties. She argues that "its scope is so broad that it touches almost all aspects of life and it dwells within the hearts and minds of each one of us" and its core feature is a "devaluation of the other." [11]

Interdisciplinarity

Stern states that "various disciplines need to be integrated and cross-pollinated" in hate studies, and provides an analysis of some of the academic fields he considers relevant: [8]

Related Research Articles

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A hate crime is a prejudice-motivated crime, which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their physical appearance or perceived membership of a certain social group.

Hate speech is a legal term with varied meaning. It has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". The Encyclopedia of the American Constitution states that hate speech is "usually thought to include communications of animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation". There is no single definition of what constitutes "hate" or "disparagement". Legal definitions of hate speech vary from country to country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Misogyny</span> Prejudice against, or hatred of, women

Misogyny is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practised for thousands of years. It is reflected in art, literature, human societal structure, historical events, mythology, philosophy, and religion worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prejudice</span> Attitudes based on preconceived categories

Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's perceived personal characteristics, such as political affiliation, sex, gender, gender identity, beliefs, values, social class, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, culture, complexion, beauty, height, body weight, occupation, wealth, education, criminality, sport-team affiliation, music tastes or other perceived characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hate group</span> Collective united by hatred against others

A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other designated sector of society. According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate group's "primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin which differs from that of the members of the organization."

<i>The Culture of Critique series</i> Trilogy of books by Kevin MacDonald

The Culture of Critique series is a trilogy of books by Kevin B. MacDonald, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, white supremacist, and retired professor of evolutionary psychology. MacDonald claims that evolutionary psychology provides the motivations behind Jewish group behavior and culture. Through the series, MacDonald asserts that Jews as a group have biologically evolved to be highly ethnocentric and hostile to the interests of white people. He asserts Jewish behavior and culture are central causes of antisemitism, and promotes conspiracy theories about alleged Jewish control and influence in government policy and political movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-hating Jew</span> Pejorative label implying antisemitism

The terms "self-hating Jew", "self-loathing Jew" and auto-antisemite are pejorative terms used to describe a Jew whose viewpoints on any specific matter are perceived as antisemitic. If used in bad faith for political purposes, the terms may be a form of weaponization of antisemitism.

Kenneth S. Stern is an American attorney and an author. He is the director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, a program of the Human Rights Project at Bard College. From 2014 to 2018 he was the executive director of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation. From 1989 to 2014 he was the director of antisemitism, hate studies and extremism for the American Jewish Committee. In 2000, Stern was a special advisor to the defense in the David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt trial. His 2020 book, The Conflict Over the Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate, examines attempts of partisans of each side to censor the other, and the resulting damage to the academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbophobia</span> Irrational fear of, and aversion to, lesbians

Lesbophobia comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards lesbians as individuals, as couples, as a social group, or lesbianism in general. Based on the categories of sex, sexual orientation, identity, and gender expression, this negativity encompasses prejudice, discrimination, hatred, and abuse; with attitudes and feelings ranging from disdain to hostility. Lesbophobia is misogyny that intersects with homophobia, and vice versa. It is analogous to gayphobia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Haidt</span> American social psychologist

Jonathan David Haidt is an American social psychologist and author. He is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business. His main areas of study are the psychology of morality and moral emotions.

Microaggression is a term used for commonplace verbal, behavioral or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups. The term was coined by Harvard University psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans. By the early 21st century, use of the term was applied to the casual disparagement of any socially marginalized group, including LGBT people, poor people, and disabled people. Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership". The persons making the comments may be otherwise well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatred</span> Deep and emotional extreme dislike

Hatred or hate is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hatred is sometimes seen as the opposite of love.

Corrective rape, also called curative rape or homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation, such as homosexuality or bisexuality. The common intended consequence of the rape, as claimed by the perpetrator, is to turn the person heterosexual.

Disability hate crime is a form of hate crime involving the use of violence against people with disabilities. This is not only violence in a physical sense, but also includes other hostile acts, such as the repeated blocking of disabled access and verbal abuse. These hate crimes are associated with prejudice against a disability, or a denial of equal rights for disabled people. It is viewed politically as an extreme form of ableism, or disablism. This phenomenon can take many forms, from verbal abuse and intimidatory behaviour to vandalism, assault, or even murder. Although data are limited studies appear to show that verbal abuse and harassment are the most common. Disability hate crimes may take the form of one-off incidents, or may represent systematic abuse which continues over periods of weeks, months, or even years. Disabled parking places, wheelchair access areas and other facilities are frequently a locus for disability hate. Instead of seeing access areas as essential for equity, they are seen instead as 'special treatment', unjustifiable by status, and so a 'reason' for acting aggressively. Denial of access thus demonstrates a prejudice against equal rights for disabled people; such actions risk actual bodily harm as well as limiting personal freedom.

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Academic bias is the bias or perceived bias of scholars allowing their beliefs to shape their research and the scientific community. It can refer to several types of scholastic prejudice, e.g., logocentrism, phonocentrism, ethnocentrism or the belief that some sciences and disciplines rank higher than others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill</span> South African legislation

The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill is a bill aimed at reducing offensive speech and curbing hate crimes in South Africa. The Bill was introduced in 2016 and sits before the South African National Assembly. Some of the stated intentions of the legislation include to "provide for the prevention of hate crimes and hate speech" and to "provide for effective enforcement measures" against those who express their "prejudice or intolerance towards the victim." The bill has been subject to much debate, with some groups expressing concern over the implications of restricting speech. Others have contended that the bill is necessary given the level of discrimination in South Africa.

Hate speech is public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. Hate speech is "usually thought to include communications of animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, colour, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation".

James E. Hawdon is an American sociologist, academic, and author. He is a professor of Sociology and a Director for the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech.

References

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