 I'm Liz Wade and I'm Adam Novus and welcome to our real conversation about our Spotlight English programs. Today, we are discussing our third program in our 10 program series called 10 Ways to Fight Hate, Support the Victims. And of course, this series, these 10 ways to fight hate do come from the Southern Poverty Law Center in the United States. And they've made this list of 10 ways to fight hate in your community. And we really hope that going through this series of programs is helpful to you, not only as just a sort of worldview, but also as a way for you to take actual steps in your community to make it better. And so, of course, Adam, we have these 10 programs and this is the third one. Do you remember the first two ways to fight hate in your community? I believe, if I come up with one, I'll be good. I think it's either act is the first one. Act is the first one, yes. So the first way to fight hate in your community is to act. And really, it just means when you see hate crime in your community, you may want to just be quiet and keep to yourself and just ignore it and it will go away, it maybe doesn't affect you. You might not even be sure it is a hate crime. Yeah, right, exactly. So what you want to do is act in some way, whether it's speaking out, whether it's helping the person, because you are not the only person who has experienced that hate crime, who is in that community, all of those things, right, so making your community better. Now, do you remember the second one? Is it listen, something about listening? No, I'm actually forgetting it right now. I really need you to tell me. No, OK, I'm so embarrassed that I couldn't think of the second one. I had it in my head just a second ago. Yeah. Join forces. Yeah, join forces, you got it. It's the program with the Muslim shopkeepers, right, or shopkeeper who opened up and showed love to his community, joining forces with the community, right, OK, oh sheesh, OK. And so, yeah, check out those programs, and there is a playlist so that you can always follow along whenever there is a new program in this series. And of course, this one, now I know this one, is support the victims. So whenever there is a hate crime, there is a victim, right? If somebody is attacking another person because of who they are, that's a hate crime, whether they are a different skin color, whether they're gay or just because of who that person is. Right, there may be religious intolerance. Yeah, religion, whether which religion they are, that person is a victim, right? They've had a crime done against them. And so this program really specifically looks at ways that you can support your community and the victims in your community of hate crimes. Even if it's like, you know, if you, if somebody does graffiti, right, on the side of a building, that's still a victim. The owners of that building are a victim. Really, anybody walking by there, that's, you know, want to see hate in your every day. Well, in one of the things that I have been thinking about a lot over the last year or two is that I can support the people around me, even if I don't agree with them on every single issue. Even if I don't agree with them on politics or what we should do with our neighborhood. When it comes, there are certain lines when it comes to hate crimes that you just, you need to say, you know what, we are all people and there are some basic human rights that we all have. And to feel safe and protected is one of those rights. Right, so you're saying that like, even if you weren't the same religion, you can still support the victims of somebody who, or the victim who is maybe a different religion than you. You don't need to be in that immediate circle of the community to be support. I feel like even if the person, even if the person would hate me, you know, like if they're my, I'm going to use air quotes here to say enemy in whatever. They could be, I mean, if they're, maybe they support a rival sports team. Maybe they live in a country that my country's treating poorly or whatever. They're all around the world. There are some basic human rights and that we need to support each other. And that needs to be the floor under which we have these conversations. We should never go to people and say, well, you're my enemy so I can let you, I don't have to support you, right? Even especially if you're the victim of a hate crime. Right. Well, because of course, when you have a hate crime, right, if you don't show support for the victims, if you don't show that your community is not going to accept hate, it can escalate. It can get worse. Not that you should only do this for this person or purpose, but if criminals, I hate criminals, go after one group of people because of who they are and they feel emboldened, they feel like nobody stops them, they may go after another group of people. They may go after another group of people and another. And then you are in a group of people, where does it stop? Well, and there's a lot of examples of groups who have been violent and even within their own group, they've said they've wanted to move further, more extreme, and those people who didn't want to go more extreme, they were pushed out and they were pushed to the side. And so it is one of those things that you really want to, like you said, act, join forces and support the victim. And I think one of the things that this program really emphasizes is like how you do that. Like you were saying graffiti, helping repaint over graffiti. Even small ways of letting people know, knock on that shop owner's door and say, hey, I'm sorry that happened to you. Right, right, some of the other examples are. If there's maybe somebody threw a brick through a window, that has happened before as a hate crime, right? Maybe help clean up that glass, maybe even just as you're saying, like knocking on the door or a phone call to say I support you or what can I do to help you. Those are really simple ways that anyone can do, really. And speaking as a person who is pretty introverted, maybe that's a new word to some of our audience. I'm an introvert of somebody who is not very outgoing. Right, people might be surprised to find that you and I are both, you know, we're here making videos for the world, but we both are pretty, we like maybe one or two people in a room, not like a big party. Yes, yeah, it's really hard to go out and do stuff. And so I think those sort of things are, like maybe you can, those sort of things sound kind of difficult to me as well, but they are doable. You know, if you're sending a, sending a letter even, like that's pretty good, right? It's something, but you know, for those who are maybe more extroverted, there are things to do as well. Right. And those are things that you can do. Yeah. And the thing about supporting the victim is you don't have to change the world. It's just one little thing that you can do, right? It's not, I need to get rid of hate. That is too much. None of us can do that. Well, one of the, the story in this program follows Natasha Bodwar. She wrote an article about why she, because she's part of this group called the Caravan of Love. It's in India. And for like a couple years now, they have been going to remote villages. See, this is something as an introvert would be very difficult for me, but I'm so thankful for these people like her and her group that go to these remote places and they, there is a lot of, I think it's religious, like intolerance and so there are a lot of victims in those villages, right? And she and her group go there and they provide support in a lot of ways, like physical support, maybe just caring for somebody, but they also try to change the, they use like audio and video materials and they do interviews and things like that to change the whole idea about hate crimes in India. Which is such a, like a huge thing to do. So I'm also thankful for those groups and those kinds of people that do work for that change. Yeah, day after day, because that's not a something that happens quickly. It's something that it's gonna take a long time, generations even to change behaviors. And yeah, I think it's normal. I have this and I think one of the things, so if I can, like I get scared that if I stand up and I say, this isn't right, that either I'm gonna get hurt or I'm gonna lose, I wonder how people are gonna see me. Right. Because I don't wanna, It just makes me very brave. Nobody thinks that they're evil, right? Nobody is going around thing like, I'm doing this really bad thing. People, everybody thinks that they're doing the right thing. So how do you change? How do you have your mind changed to say, you know what, this isn't right? And that's a hard question. And this is why I love, I honestly think that this series of programs is one of the most valuable series that we can put out, I'm proud of. Especially now. Especially now. And I mean, we kind of sadly joke that this program, the idea for this program, and it was a long time ago and it will probably continue to be relevant for a long time to come. Cause I don't think we're gonna get rid of hate anytime soon, but. Right. Well, in this series, 10 ways, 10 ways that we're gonna work in our communities in big and little ways to fight that. And I would love to hear what our viewers think. Yeah. You know, is there a way that you have helped support victims of hate in your community? Is hate a big problem in your community? I know we ask these questions probably every time we have this conversation, but things change, right? There are a couple of weeks between programs and as we all know, the news cycle moves really quickly and hate hasn't stopped yet. Right, and there are individuals and groups all around the world who are really suffering. Yeah. And here at Spotlight, we're committed to the value of all people. Yep. And we want to fight hate in the little way that we can. I mean, I think Liz and I both feel strongly that we want our programs to be hopeful and encouraging and to really highlight the differences and the diversity in the world. And we hope that. And to celebrate it. And celebrate it, and say, you know what? Everybody, there are injustices in the world that if we have the opportunity to speak up against or to act against, we really feel like we should. Yeah, and I would love to hear how you're already doing that. I'm sure that our listeners are already doing that in some ways. And so I would love to hear, that is a challenge, but you know, come on and brag to us about what good you're doing in the world. I'd love to hear it. And yeah, make sure you check out the rest of the series, stay tuned so that you can get the rest of the series when it comes in. We're gonna be releasing that over the next couple months. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. That way you won't miss any of them at all. And click the little bell. What else am I missing? We got Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Check us out on that. The only thing I think you've missed, and I don't know if we've said this in a while, is we really love you guys. We always say that people who listen to Spotlight are the best people on earth and we really believe that. Yeah, we do. We are always talking about that and how much we really just appreciate every single one of you. And yeah, yeah, we really appreciate you. So thank you for watching. Thank you for joining in. And we will see you next time. All right. Goodbye.