Anti-hate website offers education and assistance

A new website aims to boost anti-hate education, empowerment, and advocacy for the Stanford community.

Stanford Against Hate offers resources for people who have experienced hate: how they can report it, be connected to resources, and support each other. It defines key terms so people have a shared language to discuss these issues. And it links to pages that discuss different types of oppression and prejudice. Each of these pages has three parts: What is happening? Why is this happening? What can I do?

“It’s meant to be a source of collective education and learning,” said Francesca Malayeri, Class of ’24, who has contributed to the project as part of her work at the Office of Inclusion, Community and Integrative Learning (ICIL), which will manage and update the site.

She hopes these resources will help students understand that although legal constraints sometimes prevent the university from taking action against hate speech, improved communication about the issues is possible.

“This website has really brought another perspective to the resources that Stanford students have needed during times when there has been a prevalence of hate toward a marginalized group on campus,” she said.

Empowering students

The site originated from efforts to address anti-Asian hate during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. A site was created to talk about why anti-Asian hate was increasing and what people could do if they were affected by it or witnessed it.

Once the anti-Asian hate site went live, multiple colleagues agreed that similar material would be useful for other communities. They set to work creating the new site.

“Dozens of people worked on this site,” said Marissa Floro, a psychologist and program manager at the Weiland Health Initiative. “We wanted to make sure that people who have expertise and work within communities participated.”

Contributors include CAPS clinicians, the Office for Religious & Spiritual Life, campus community centers, and the Confidential Support Team.

The site is an educational tool for allies, as well as a source of empowerment for people who experience oppression.

“The focus of my work is to support students affiliated with the community centers and ethnic theme houses,” said Maija Cruz, ’12, a student support specialist with Well-Being at Stanford. “When incidents of hate and violence hit the headlines or impact students, it takes an immense amount of bandwidth for staff and students to constantly explain their experience or to solicit support. This resource serves as an initial answer to the well-intended questions of ‘How do I help?’ and ‘What can I do?’”

Ending oppression

Floro and Malayeri hope that the site’s educational mission will get people thinking about how oppression can be stopped before harm occurs, as well as helping those affected by hate.

“It’s providing a tool to educate people instead of waiting for something to happen that harms a group,” Malayeri said. “I think it’s going to be a great tool that can be, over time, embedded in Stanford student culture.”

Still, they say creating this site is just a first step.

“We recognize that a website can’t end oppression,” Floro said. “In fact, many different things at Stanford and outside Stanford need to change in order to end the hurt and harm that continue to plague our society. We hope that site will provide folks with resources, action steps, and ways to contribute to that collective push toward liberation.”