A new campaign against discrimination and hate for 2021
Background
Hate speech and hate crime affect all marginalised communities, including our own.
Amongst Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities 3 out of 4 have experienced hate speech or hate crime. This year, the Government is passing legislation, criminalising trespass and ‘unauthorised’ encampments’, which is likely to mainly affect Gypsies and Travellers and will make it illegal for them to practice their long-standing way of life. This not only reflects how acceptable discrimination still is, but also how these attitudes seep into our country’s laws and values.
As Jews, we understand this pattern all too well, both in relation to our own history and in the worrying rise in hate crime and hate speech across all marginalised groups since 2016. Together with leading charity The Traveller Movement we launched the #CutItOut campaign in 2019, and you can read more about its origins here.
What now?
René Cassin believes that as Jews, addressing discrimination means fighting for everyone’s rights, together. This means reaching out to others who experience discrimination, to learn, show solidarity and foster mutual understanding of where our struggles are shared and our communities can support one another.
We cannot expect to #CutItOut if we do not #ReachOut beyond our community, to understand where discrimination comes from, how it manifests in different marginalised groups, and what different communities need for everyone’s rights to be seen and secured as equal.
So what does this mean in practice?
Building relationships and educating one another
Our #ReachOut event series will see Moishe Houses across London host a range of Jewish campaign groups for specific issues, from the Jewish greens and disability rights activists, to Jewish LGBTQ+ and feminist causes. You can find our COP26 #ReachOut event on environmental justice here.
Mobilising our community as campaigners
We are working with the campaign group Stop Funding Hate, who have had massive success getting major advertisers to pull their ads and funding from publications and press- including GB News and the Daily Mail- for spreading hateful tropes and language in their outlets. Read about some of their campaigns here .
We will be working with them to produce resources and workshops with different that arm Jewish students with campaign tactics and tools to challenge online hate and stand in solidarity with people of all marginalised communities.
Watch this space for updates on our #ReachOut event series, workshops and resources!
