ROBERT HARVEY had a problem. The church he pastors was vandalized after the election: “Trump Nation. Whites only” was scrawled across its sign. His congregants, nearly 85 percent of whom are immigrants from West Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, were shaken.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported 1,094 bias-related incidents across the country in the month after the election. The greatest number of these types of events are against women in public spaces who are also immigrants, Muslim, or African American. These are assumed to be a “small fraction of hate-related incidents,” as the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that two-thirds of hate crimes go unreported.
Harvey, rector of Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Silver Spring, Md., decided to take action. First, he reached out to the local community and other religious congregations. Second, he signed up for a nonviolence and “active bystander intervention” training.
To understand how to be an “active bystander,” one must first understand the “passive bystander” effect. Research shows that when someone needs help and they are in a crowd, bystanders are less likely to act. The more bystanders there are to an event, the more each one thinks someone else will help.
But, said psychologist Ken G. Brown, when one person takes an action, the passive bystander results are reversed. “We go from having a bystander effect where people are less likely to help to having what could be called a ‘helper effect’ where ... as long as one person actively helps, more people are more likely to jump in to aid further,” said Brown.
There are four key principles that guide active-bystander intervention, according to Maryland-based trainer Kit Bonson:
1. Show moral courage by acting calmly on principle, not emotion.
2. Engage in de-escalation by limiting the ways a situation might become worse; reduce drama.
3. Prioritize the targeted person by asking if they want help. Don’t take away the targeted person’s agency. Act not as a savior, but as an actively concerned bystander.
4. Ignore the attacker, create a safe space for the targeted person, and ask other bystanders for a specific action.
Hollaback, a global movement to end harassment in public spaces, identifies the four Ds of active-bystander intervention: direct intervention, distract (indirect intervention), delegate (ask others for help), and delay (respond to the targeted person after the situation is over).
Active-bystander trainings are opportunities to practice these principles and tactics in role plays. Practicing with others helps overcome the uncertainty factor more quickly and allows for swift and effective intervention when a situation arises.
On Inauguration Day, Sojourners partnered with Swamp Revolt, a D.C.-based civil society group that formed after the election, to train more than 1,500 people at 23 locations in Maryland, Virginia, and the District in how to de-escalate conflict and intervene in situations of bias or harassment.
FOLLOWING THE racist graffiti incident at Harvey’s Episcopal church, people from across the country sent cards and messages of support. Four synagogues, two mosques, and other faith groups showed up at his church the following Sunday with flowers, banners, and signs of support for the congregation. Harvey said, “They let us know that ‘love trumps hate.’”
“Resistance can take many forms,” said Harvey, after attending an active-bystander training. “I found [it] particularly helpful as a faith leader. Some of my parishioners encounter racism nearly every day. I’ve given them the advice I learned.”
In an era of increased bias incidents and a climate of fear, nonviolence and active-bystander intervention is what “love your neighbor” looks like in public.
Rose Marie Berger, a Catholic peace activist and poet, is senior editor of Sojourners magazine. She is author ofBending the Arch: Poems.
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