Enough! Let’s Drop the I-Word—It’s Hate Speech

 

Color Lines

You wouldn’t call someone a w*tback, or the n-word. Saying “illegals” is just as bad. The i-word creates an environment of hate by exploiting racial fear and economic anxiety, creating an easy scapegoat for complex issues, and OK-ing violence against those labeled with the word. Today, ColorLines and our publisher, the Applied Research Center, launch a campaign to get rid of this nasty language once and for all.

Check out the video above explaining how the word feeds hate and shapes policy, forward it around to your friends and colleagues and then sign the pledge to Drop the I-Word. To learn more about the campaign and download a toolkit for local offline activism, dig into the Drop the I-Word campaign site.