The Geography of Hate

Twitter has the capacity to ignite revolutions and enable small acts of kindness, but there's also a darker side to the microblogging network.

Floating Sheep, a group of geography academics, created the "Geography of Hate," which maps racist, homophobic and ableist tweets in the U.S. After searching for all geotagged tweets in North America between June 2012 and April 2013, students at Humboldt State University manually read and coded the sentiment of each tweet to determine if a specific word was used in a positive, negative or neutral way. In a blog post, Floating Sheep cited "dyke" as an example: While the word is a homophobic slur against lesbian people, it can also be used positively (e.g. "dykes on bikes #SFPride).

In total, over 150,000 geotagged tweets contained a hateful slur that was deemed negative. Using the data, Floating Sheep determined the ratio of hateful tweets to overall tweets in each county.

"Hateful tweets were aggregated to the county level and then normalized by the total number of tweets in each county. This then shows a comparison of places with disproportionately high amounts of a particular hate word relative to all tweeting activity," the group said.

Orange County, Calif., for example, has the highest absolute number of tweets containing slurs, but due to its high level of overall Twitter activity, the hateful tweets are less prominent, and therefore are not that conspicuous on the map.

Floating Sheep has three main categories of hateful tweets — homophobic, racist and disability — under which are subcategories for specific slurs. Click through the detailed map, here. And for in-depth analysis of the results, read the entire blog post, here.

I saw this map earlier this week and I was already planning on studying it more thoroughly to be able to post this blog.  Then today my daughter posted this picture:

At first I thought, "Oh wow, that's great!"  Then it hit me that we shouldn't have to have a day set aside to remind us to treat people with respect and dignity no matter what their race, gender, age, or sexuality.  Shouldn't we just know that?  Shouldn't we be beyond this?  Well, look at the map above and obviously we aren't.  Not by a long shot.  How about we have a "Don't Be Afraid of Someone Just Because They Are Different Than You" Day?  

We need to learn to not be threatened by someone whose opinion is different than our own.  And that falls on all sides of the spectrum.  You have gay folks judging Christians because they automatically assume that they are not an ally.  And then again you have Christians whose hearts might be a little more open if they would stop and listen and understand that the "gay agenda" does not include the overthrow of any of their institutions. Your church will still be your church and no one is going to come in and change it.  You still get to believe what you want to believe.  

So for all those people above Tweeting and hiding behind the anonymity that the internet provides I would ask that you consider the following before you fill the internet with your vitriol and hate:

Stop The Persecution 101 

• Please do not use the bible, hell, or any other religious beliefs to try to prove your argument or to disprove someone else's argument.  We should only impose our religious beliefs on ourselves, not on others.  Plus, no one completely and totally lives the bible as written.  For every verse you can find I can find another that shows your faults, flaws, and sins.  Let's go beyond not throwing the stones and just leave them on the ground in the first place.
  
• Please refrain from using the 'slippery slope argument' (ie. "if we allow gay couples to live freely and give them the same marital rights that heterosexual couples enjoy, we open the door to paedophilia and beastiality". Not only is comparing homosexuality to a sexual perversion totally unacceptable and unfair, it is an erroneous and foolish assumption.
  
• History tells us Black people were enslaved, persecuted and killed due to hate until it became not so fashionable. Gay people are as I write, being persecuted and killed due to hate. So what's the difference?  Stop and think about what you are saying and ask yourself what side of history you want to be on.  There was a time not so long ago that bi-racial marriage was illegal and people fought for change then just as we fight for change now.  

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

To see more MLK Quotes Click Here.