Civil rights attorney Arjun Singh Sethi’s new book, “American Hate,” is a compelling collection of testimonies from survivors of hate violence.

Photo: Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By catherine lizette gonzalez
August 31, 2018
On May 26, 2017, Destinee Mangum and Walia Mohamed, two Black Muslim teenage girls, were riding a light rail train in Portland, Oregon, when a White supremacist attacked them with racist verbal abuse. The assailant, Jeremy Joseph Christian, then stabbed three men who intervened in the girls’ defense, killing two and injuring the third.
Christian was widely known for his hate speech and threatening comments. On social media, he shared Nazi sympathies and racist memes. At a “March for Free Speech” rally in April, he appears in a video wearing a Revolutionary War-era American flag, casting Nazi salutes, and shouting, “Die all Muslims!” Just a day before the stabbings occurred, he threw a bottle at a Black woman as she was exiting a train. Portland police officers were already familiar with Joseph’s racism and his violent threats, but they claimed he was mentally ill.
Mangum and Mohamed’s horrifying experience is a snapshot of the rise in hate violence that has emerged since the campaign and election of President Donald Trump. And for the first time since the stabbing, they offer their testimony in a new book, “American Hate: Survivors Speak Out,” published earlier this month (August 8).
Editor and civil rights attorney Arjun Singh Sethi records the stories of people whose lives have been rocked by hate. He spent hours meeting with survivors and worked with them to ensure their testimonies were authentically represented. “American Hate” recounts the material consequences of hate violence and provides a tool that can empower communities to fight back.
Read more about civil rights attorney Arjun Singh Sethi’s new book, “American Hate”: http://bit.ly/2NzKZT3.
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