Defusing Hate: A Strategic Communication Guide to Counteract Dangerous Speech

Rachel Hilary Brown

Genocide and mass atrocities are commonly preceded and accompanied by “dangerous speech”—hate speech that has the potential to influence people to accept, condone, or commit violence against targeted groups. Dangerous speech is consequently considered both a warning sign and an instrument of group-targeted violence. Counteracting its dissemination provides us with one avenue for preventing this type of violence from occurring.

The Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide has worked with fellow Rachel Brown to produce Defusing Hate: A Strategic Guide to Counteract Dangerous Speech. Informed by history and drawing from a range of disciplines—from political science to communications, from marketing to neuropsychology—the guide offers activists, religious and civil society leaders, and their supporters the strategies and tools they need to prevent dangerous speech from influencing audiences.

The guide is organized into a reference book and three workbooks, which are designed for use in workshops or with small groups.

(Goodreads.com)