United Against Hate Week: Workshop Offers Advice On What To Do When Witnessing Harassment in Public

Would you know what to do if you witnessed some type of street harassment, whether on a sidewalk, on public transportation, or in a market or store? Would you find someone else to intervene? Would you do anything else?

As part of an ongoing national celebration of United Against Hate Week, the Western Justice Center, the City of Pasadena Human Relations Commission, and the Pasadena Parks and Recreation Department, sponsored a workshop on how to deal with the various forms of street harassment.

United Against Hate Week, a movement that began in Berkeley six years ago, was a response to the white supremacist rallies that occurred in San Francisco and Berkeley in 2017. 

The initiative inspired the formation of numerous anti-hate organizations across hundreds of cities in California. Today, this wave of opposition against hate has spread throughout the nation.”

According to the United Against Hate website, “Hate incidents and crimes involve evidence that bias, hatred, or prejudice have occurred based on the victim’s real or perceived race/ethnicity, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, or sexual orientation.

By reporting as a victim, witness, or advocate for a victim of hate crimes and hate incidents, you help identify areas in need of intervention and prevention resources such as education and protection of your legal rights.”

Following a guided meditation, Lindi Woo, a trainer with Right to Be, and Hollaback!, based in Calgary, Alberta Canada, led the participants through an online workshop-style training on how best to respond in a street harassment situation.

“I know the experience of it, the feeling of it,” she said, “ the lasting impact of it. I have many stories, I share them here today, but I have experienced harassment around every country I’ve been in, every city I’ve been in. And it’s unfortunately rare when we have someone intervene sometimes because it just happens so fast, it’s over so fast, maybe people don’t even see that it happened, right? But in the few instances that someone has intervened, it has really made all the difference in the world.”

Woo also explained that, “the prevalence of harassment is really higher among women, but both men and women can experience harassment. It’s important to remember that you can be harassed for being gay or being a woman, whether or not you are actually gay or a woman. And harassment can happen to men at highest risk in a male population.” 

Woo then discussed strategies for those who may be witnesses to street harassment, noting that defusing harassment situations boils down to five strategies—Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct.

To “Distract” may be as simple as asking the victim the time, or asking the perpetrator directions to a nearby address, quickly diverting their attention and allowing the victim to move away from the situation.

To “Delegate” means to find someone of some authority to intervene or find someone who can step in and intervene in the situation.

“Document,” means to record the situation in some way, usually with a cell phone camera, and carefully photograph or record the situation, to perhaps provide any necessary court evidence, should the situation escalate.   

‘Delay,” explained Woo, is waiting after the incident is over and checking in with that person who experienced the harassment from the disrespect,and making sure they’re okay.

A “Direct” response would be to step in and confront the harasser, and ask them to stop, without necessarily putting oneself in danger.

The evening program also featured a brief presentation by Linda Bustamante of the LA County Human Relations Commission, on “LA Vs. Hate” 211LA,  a telephone hotline for LA County residents for reporting and providing service connections for people who have been victims of, or witnesses to, acts of bullying or incidents related to hate or discrimination.

Following the training, Katie Young, District 5 representative to the Pasadena Human Relations Commission, said, “I hope that we can feel like more of a community. I wonder what would happen if there were an incident in plain sight on the street, would anyone actually intervene? And so I think that the training gives us very practical advice. We can just memorize those five Ds and hopefully apply them in those situations.”