Toggle mobile menu
United Against Hate Week (UAHW) is a call for seven days of local civic action by people in every community to stop the hate and implicit biases that are a dangerous threat to the safety and civility of our neighborhoods, towns and cities. United Against Hate Week was created by civic leaders in direct response to the sharp rise in expressions of hate in our communities.
The campaign aims to empower local residents to take action in their local communities and alter the course of this growing intolerance. The City of San Rafael stands with fellow California cities in denouncing rising trends of bias and bullying that have plagued our communities in recent years. When cities and their residents work together against hate, we can restore respect and civil discourse, embrace the strength of diversity and build inclusive and equitable communities for all.
Join us! You can post signs, host events, share stories, attend rallies, and connect with schools and neighborhood civic institutions. Nothing is too small, because working united in each community is what will defeat hate in all communities.
Check out our 2024 Library Reading List to get informed!
Stay up to date with this webpage, and we'll upload all content here as it becomes available.
At the September 16th City Council meeting, Damien Oyobio, a member of the City’s Diversity Equity Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) committee, delivered a moving response to the United Against Hate Week proclamation. His heartfelt words left a significant impact, and we wanted to share them here:
United Against Hate
HATE = Heartless Actions, Toxic Energy.
To hate is to have nothing but contempt against something. It’s beyond a dislike. It’s a display of extreme ignorance, disrespect, and prejudice. Hate is the root to various forms of negative thinking and behavior towards others. Think of racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, and Islamophobia. All words to express heartless actions, toxic energy, aka HATE.
Like invasive weeds in a garden, hate spreads, absorbing the nutrients in the fertile soil, which in turn, suffocates the essential nutrients and vitality of the diverse assortment of plants and the beautiful flowers these plants blossom. But there is hope. Those who may have a bit of a green thumb can understand and relate. Weeds may take root, but they are very shallow. This is where the term “to root out” comes from.
In order to bring back the vitality of the garden, you would have to take action. You would need to give it a little LOVE.
Using the garden analogy, to give it a little love means get down to the ground to identify the weeds and address the condition. It means to provide certain action requiring energy, or CARE, to the garden. Once done, the weeds are placed in compost bins, so the energy it took for the weeds to spread across the garden can be repurposed and reimagined.
In time, the energy used to produce the weeds is transferred and is released, creating the very soil for future healthy gardens. To LOVE is to see the potential of the roughest, toughest weeds and to envision not only a beautiful garden in your own backyard, but to know there will be healthy gardens everywhere, once the energy from the weeds is released and redirected. It’s to have hope, it’s to show LOVE. The best part about LOVE is it’s not only the opposite of HATE. LOVE is transcendent. It speaks all languages. LOVE is the bedrock of human nature. It’s one of the only things in this world you can give, without losing.
LOVE = Lifting Others Virtually Everywhere.
Damien Oyobio
