Hate Groups and Violence in Libraries

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The Libraries Respond: Hate Crimes and Libraries resource addressed actions of how to respond to hate motivated incidents in libraries. This resource: Hate Groups and Violence in Libraries focuses on responding to and preventing violence in libraries.

What are Hate Groups?

A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other designated sector of society.

What are Hate Crimes?

The Department of Justice aggressively prosecutes hate crimes, which include acts of physical harm and specific criminal threats motivated by animus based on race, color, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Hate crimes have a devastating effect beyond the harm inflicted on any one victim. They reverberate through families, communities, and the entire nation, as others fear that they too could be threatened, attacked, or forced from their homes, because of what they look like, who they are, where they worship, whom they love, or whether they have a disability.

Hate Crimes Defined by the Department of Justice

Resources from ALA

ALA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Statements

Additional Resources