Have You Experienced Hate Crimes or Bias? Let Us Know Via the Documenting Hate Project

The Triton is launching the Documenting Hate project here at UCSD, in collaboration with the independent news organization ProPublica. The nationwide project tracks hate crimes and bias incidents via local newsrooms, and will allow students to report incidents from their own lives.

Hate crimes have increased nationally in the past year, including in California, making this project all the more urgent. The FBI defines hate crimes as criminal actions influenced by bias towards a person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The state of California has stricter hate crime laws than the federal statutes, but uses the same categories.

UCSD has a history of racism on campus which has extended into the present day. The effects of the infamous Compton Cookout, in which a fraternity through a racist party, linger to this day. In 2016, anti-immigrant chalkings covered the campus the day before new students toured, and this October, a student in a computer science course filled a study guide with the word “nigger.”

While it is possible to report hate crimes to the UCSD Police Department, in practice students rarely do. In 2016, the annual police report listed three incidents of reported hate crimes, and zero in 2015 or 2014. Information reported in the Document Hate form will not be shared with the police or with university officials. Even if you’re unsure whether an incident meets the criteria of a hate crime, tips of bias incidents can be reported to the Document Hate project as well.

If you see, experience, or know about a hate crime committed in the UCSD community, please fill out the form below. We may reach out to you to gather more information, to be able to report on the incident. The Triton will take no actions that may further endanger someone who has endured a hate crime, and will not proceed without contacting you. We’re proud to be a part of this important project, uplifting your stories.

If you would like to report a hate crime to the UCSD police, you can call (858) 534-4357. If you are looking for counseling, you can call UCSD Counseling and Psychological Services at (858) 534-3755.

Jaz Twersky is the Editor in Chief of The Triton.