HateDocumenting hate in America: What ProPublica found in 2018

By Rachel Glickhouse

Swastikas drawn on the office of a Jewish Ivy League professor. Latinos harassed for speaking Spanish in public. Hijab-wearing women targeted in road rage incidents. Neo-Nazis bragging online about a murder. These are just some of the incidents that ProPublica and its partners have reported in their second year of Documenting Hate, a collaborative project investigating hate with more than 160 newsrooms around the country.

Since ProPublica launched the project in January 2017, victims and witnesses of hate incidents have sent the website more than 5,400 reports from all 50 states. ProPublica verified nearly 1,200 reports, either via independent reporting or through corroborating news coverage. ProPublica also collected thousands of pages of hate crime data and incident reports from hundreds of police departments across the country.

Here are some of the highlights from the project this year, including ProPublica’s work and reporting by partners using ProPublica tips and resources. (Read all of ProPublica’s reporting from the past year here.)

Dozens of hate-fueled attacks reported at Walmart stores nationwide
(Univision)
Univision’s Jessica Weiss identified dozens of harassment incidents at Walmarts and other superstores. Walmarts often act as “de facto ‘town centers,’” and people of color end up getting targeted, such as being told to go back to their country or to speak English. Just this month, two men in Louisiana were arrested for allegedly yelling racial slurs at a black woman leaving a Walmart and smashing a shopping cart into her car.

They spewed hate. Then they punctuated it with the president’s name
(Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting)
Reveal went through hundreds of tips in which President Donald Trump’s name was mentioned, identifying incidents all over the country ranging from harassment to assault. Reporter Will Carless spoke to 80 people who reported these tips, and he found an additional 70 cases reported in the media or confirmed with documentation.

“Dozens of people across the country said the same thing: What hurts most in these attacks is being told that you don’t belong in America,” Carless wrote. “That you’re not welcome. That since Trump was elected, the country has been reserved for a certain group — a group that doesn’t look like you or dress like you or practice the same religion as you.”