Humans Over Hate Group

About Humans Over Hate

Humans Over Hate is designed to confront the rise of hate related acts in our community while fostering greater tolerance and understanding between disparate groups of people. The initiative will have several facets informed by four central tenets: Respect, Connect, Detect, and Affect.

These tenets are designed to educate and inform our neighbors, coalesce community groups and resources,assess the prevalence of hate through the experiences of residents and data-tracking, and mitigate the escalation of hate-related activity in our city. The overwhelming number of hate-related incidents that occur every day do not rise to the level of criminality but are, nonetheless, personally painful, socially divisive, and may lead to hate crimes.

HOH Tenets:

1. Respect – Creating safe and respectful spaces – whether they be virtual, in-person, or hybrid – for interactions between diverse and/or disparate groups.

2. Connect – Hosting engagements designed to gauge the experiences and observations of our neighbors while fostering genuine dialogue leading to better understanding and relationships.

3. Detect – Developing new as well as leveraging existing infrastructure and tools to understand what the prevalence of hate in the community is as well as how and/or where it’s manifesting.

4. Affect – Coalescing and providing infrastructure to partner organizations, neighborhoods, and community members to deploy thoughtful interventions to hateful environments when needed.

No Hate on My Plate

No Hate on My Plate will be piloted in 2025 and is designed to hold a multitude of communal meals across the city each month where community members will have a safe space to discuss experiences and observations regarding the environments and places where hateful and discriminatory behavior has occurred or is occurring. Moderators of these discussions will take note of various topics raised and provide a report back to the MHRC. The combined information gleaned from all these meals will be utilized to inform our elected officials, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, and neighborhoods of residents’ experiences and perceptions. Moreover, the discussions will, ideally, create a sense of community and understanding among complete strangers. 

This One City Academy training program is designed to provide community organizations, neighborhoods, and residents the knowledge and resources necessary to detect and/or initiate interventions to hateful acts/sentiments when they are on the rise. Early warning systems are vital to confronting hateful environments before they escalate. If they do escalate, interventions and efforts to support those affected must be deployed.

The Annual Report will be part of the NDeX initiative and focus on hate incidents reported, feedback from No Hate on My Plate meals and other engagements, discrimination complaints, data from law enforcement agencies regarding hate crimes, surveys, focus groups, and other sources of information that will create as clear a picture as possible of the prevalence of hateful and discriminatory behavior in Nashville.

The Hate Incident Form provides a reporting tool to the community so residents can submit incidents in which they experienced or witnessed hateful actions. This tracking mechanism will make the environment of hate in different communities and/or against particular populations easier to assess.

You’re Welcome is a publicity campaign that simultaneously announces establishments and locations as no-hate-zones while informing all who enter that hateful behavior will be reported. Participating establishments and locations will be placed on a digital map that highlights all partners.

Ice Cream Social Justice will be a monthly event designed to provide levity to the liberators of our community. Every month, a casual gathering will be held in honor of the people who work tirelessly in various sectors of the social justice and human/civil rights world. The goal is to have ice cream, drinks, and other sumptuous fare on tap for everyone who wants to partake. No rigid agenda will be in place. It’s meant to be a fun “thank-you” to all of those doing such difficult, important work. However, it’s reasonable to assume that cross-pollination and collaboration will naturally occur due to people from different organizations/groups getting to know one another in a relaxed environment.

Just Conversations is an initiative started by the Metro Human Relations Commission in 2020. The program is designed to make important discussions of equity, justice, and inclusion accessible to anyone who wants to engage and learn more. Episodes are created by and for community members. All episodes are located on the Just Conversations website: www.JustConversations.org. 

TownHallPass creates an accessible online community where Nashville area residents can participate equally in discussions related to equity, access, and inclusion. In order to make that experience successful, THP supplies community organizations and groups with the necessary training, tools, and infrastructure to create and manage their individual sites. The online platform can be found here: www.townhallpass.org