Reports from Pittsburgh, Illinois, and Ohio

In Pittsburgh, 250 students from 25 schools gathered at the Pittsburgh Steelers Stadium for a Youth Summit to report on and plan activities in their schools to counter hate. The Light Initiative, Eradicate Hate Global Summit, and Allegheny Schools convened the Summit, while NIOT was among the co-sponsors.  The event was a follow-up to an annual youth event at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit to screen Repairing the World: Stories From the Tree of Life, learn from survivors, and engage with each other.  

Stand For All Pittsburgh: A Hate and Bias Prevention Alliance is a newly formed group in Pittsburgh working with NIOT to improve hate and bias reporting, response, and prevention.  Stand For All, Casa San Jose, and local city council members joined local groups to present a NIOT: Light in the Darkness screening to discuss how to support local immigrants at the Tree of Life Open Bible Church in Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood. 

In Ohio, NIOT Bowling Green responds with a press release to address KKK flyers with racist cartoons falsely insinuating that teaching black history leads to drug dealing.

"Throughout American history, too many people have been targeted for discrimination, in many cases for generations and often during times of great economic and social upheaval. Just as we have seen in previous times of national turbulence, some seek to take advantage of fear and pain to advance racist ideologies and policies while also inspiring other acts of hate.

Over the last several weeks, we have seen white supremacists and others seek to weaponize this fear and anxiety to advance their hateful ideologies. There is a devastating spike in acts of hate targeting immigrants, the LGBTQ community, Muslims, Jews, people with disabilities, and people of color.
In response to the occurrence of KKK flyers in neighborhoods in Bowling Green over this past weekend—we are hurting, we are shocked, but we cannot be immobilized.

While some would ask why give these groups the publicity they are seeking, we’ve seen over and over again that ignoring hate groups emboldens them. We know our strength lies in our numbers and our commitment to core American values shared by the vast majority of people in our country, regardless of their political affiliations. We are not just responding to hate but declaring our rejection of hate and fear before bigotry hardens and hate-fueled actions escalate. America and its citizens stand united in the face of hate groups that seek to divide us.

NIOT BG is calling on members of our community to do what we have done for generations--come together in shared sacrifice to support our neighbors regardless of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, or disability. NIOT BG believes that our town is a home for great diversity and mutual respect, with no room or tolerance for any hateful behavior against anyone. We encourage the citizens of Bowling Green to reach out with compassion to friends and neighbors who have been impacted by hate and reinforce that we are a community where all are welcomed, affirmed, and respected. Further unifying actions are being planned and all citizens who stand against bigotry and hate will be encouraged to attend."

In Illinois, NIOT also presented to Springfield United, a group of volunteer neighbors who banded together after the national onslaught of social media attacks targeting Haitian immigrants in October 2024, and will feature group leaders in an upcoming NIOT webinar.

See more [1]on how NIOT leaders in Illinois responded to hateful messaging here.