It Could Happen Here
Hello, I hope that you are doing great.
Since January 6th of last year, many Americans have been reckoning with the fact that things we didn’t imagine possible in our country are now on the table.
Hate is on the rise. Polarization is sky high. Contempt for people different from you is the norm, leading to the dehumanization of others.
An organization with a staff of hundreds monitors hate groups in forums and social media posts every day, trying to stay ahead of threats before they materialize. That organization is the Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913.
Jonathan Greenblatt became the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League in 2015, right about when Trump began to dominate the political scene. As Trump arrived, hate incidents surged. “The data doesn’t lie, antisemitic incidents from 2015 – 2020 leapt 114% . . . our staff investigated over 9,600 incidents in 2020 . . . just the number of raw incidents is way up.”
Jonathan and I first met about 10 years ago when he was the Director of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the Obama White House and I was the CEO of Venture for America. His new book, “It Could Happen Here: Why America is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable – And How We Can Stop It” details some of his experiences the past 6 years as the head of the ADL and his concerns for the future. I interviewed Jonathan this week on the podcast.
One thing I appreciate about both Jonathan’s approach and his book is that he humanizes the stories. He talks about ‘counsel culture’ – engaging with people who have said or done something troubling – rather than cancel culture, which he sees as counterproductive. One of the most compelling stories from his book was about a former white supremacist named Damien Patton. Damien was a boy with a difficult home life who fell in with a white supremacist group as a teen. Damien became a leader of the group, even participating in acts of violence and organizing.
Unbeknownst to his peers, Damien was also Jewish. That’s right, Damien was a Jewish white supremacist, whose background would have made him an immediate target for those around him.
Damien’s story demonstrated how a sense of belonging can entrap people in a hateful ideology in ways you would never expect.
Damien later left the group, joined the U.S. Navy and became a successful entrepreneur, leaving his past what he believed to be far behind. But when a story came out that he was previously an active white supremacist, outrage followed and he stepped down from his company.
Is there a path to redemption for people like Damien? Jonathan believes that there is. I do too, or else what hope is there?
Jonathan and I also discussed the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign that he organized to get Facebook to more diligently screen hate groups and speech on its social media platforms. Led by Jonathan, hundreds of major companies and celebrities boycotted Facebook for months in 2020. Jonathan described how Mark Zuckerberg was proud that Facebook’s AI catches 88% of hate speech; Jonathan’s response – “What about the other 12%?” It’s clear that social media is facilitating the rise of hate groups and misinformation in America today. Jonathan is passionate when discussing the need to rein in Facebook in particular to give us a better chance to come together.
Much of Jonathan’s book is about what we can do as individuals to combat hate and misinformation. Speak up. Share Facts. Talk to Our Kids. But it’s also about what organizations, businesses and governments can do to shore up our society.
Combating hate 24/7 is a tall task; I joked with Jonathan that he might have the toughest job in America. It also might be one of the most important jobs in the country. Could the unthinkable happen here? The truth is that it could, unless an army of well-intended people works their hearts out to diminish the conditions that breed hate in America and show people a better way.
