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"Sometimes feeling bad is not enough. Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted."
Anti-hate activism surfaces in unexpected places when communities-ordinary people in otherwise ordinary towns and cities-decide they've had enough of hate crimes and hate violence. NOT IN OUR TOWN is a national project that gets people to talk with each other about tolerance, and shares organizing models and educational tools with communities who are taking a stand against hatred.
One community's lessons can encourage, guide and support another community in its decision to stand up against hate. NOT IN OUR TOWN helps communities talk to-and learn from-each other. The project chronicles positive community organizing stories and offers them as citizen-turned-activist models to communities who are addressing hate violence. NOT IN OUR TOWN provides tangible, practical tools to stimulate dialogue in town hall meetings and classrooms, churches and union halls, training sessions for public policy makers and law enforcement officers, and week-long and month-long "NOT IN OUR TOWN " events. Experiences from other communities, profiled on video, provide effective discussion-starters and organizing examples.
NOT IN OUR TOWN documents community response to hate violence. From Billings, Montana to Kokomo, Indiana to Dixiana, South Carolina, the project team goes on location with citizen-activists who are inventing models for shutting down hate. NOT IN OUR TOWN disseminates these models of community activism and responds to year-round community requests for information and resources. When a community is traumatized by an especially violent act of hatred, NOT IN OUR TOWN is often called in as a crisis response team to witness and record, and to provide-from the experience of other communities-models for healing and moving forward.
The project's underlying message is one of hope: everyone makes a difference -and anyone can change. In its third wave, NOT IN OUR TOWN: The Story Continues, establishes a permanent presence on the Web site, featuring ongoing stories of response, encouraging viewer submissions and interaction. Is the burden of hate ever heavy enough to outweigh hope? Never, according to the ordinary citizens in communities throughout America who are working toward a hate-free future.
NOT IN OUR TOWN continues to tell these stories. The NOT IN OUR TOWN project was launched in 1994 with the national public television special NOT IN OUR TOWN, which followed the story of how the citizens of Billings, Montana joined forces to resist bigotry in their town. The project is structured around national networking, grassroots events, an action tool kit, curriculum guide, on-line activities (www.pbs.org/niot), and NOT IN OUR TOWN II, a follow-up special broadcast in 1996 to show how communities adapted the experience of the people in Billings to local hate violence. The project has become one of the country's leading resources for community organizing to prevent and respond to hate crimes.
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