The Scanner

Bill Peduto is a native of Pittsburgh and became that city’s 60th mayor after serving several terms on its City Council. On October 27, 2018, his city was the site of the most lethal anti-Semetic attack in American history, when a gunman opened fire in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s historic Squirrel Hill neighborhood — which is where Mayor Peduto himself lives.

Eleven individuals were killed and seven more, including the attacker, were injured. The attacker had a history of posting hateful comments about Jews and immigrants to social media, and continued to make anti-Semitic claims after he was apprehended by Pittsburgh Police. One year later, the attacker faces 63 separate criminal counts and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for him. 

I was interested in speaking with Mayor Peduto, not about the national politics of this incident, but about the local response and his leadership during and since the attack. In the course of our conversation, we talked about reasons for hope, opportunities for progress, and how we can follow the example of one of another one of Pittsburgh’s most famous residents.

Referenced in this episode:

“Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto leads his city through its darkest days.” Washington Post, November 3, 2018.

“After synagogue shooting, fresh thoughts on giving thanks.” Associated Press, November 21, 2018.

“Recovery after the Tree of Life shooting.” 60 Minutes, October 20, 2019.

“Anti-Hate Crime Bills Introduced To Pennsylvania Legislature.” 90.5 WESA, October 31, 2019

Kevin Munger and his colleague Joseph Phillips, both from Penn State, recently published new research that concerns YouTube, the far-right, and the common belief — which they challenge head-on — that YouTube’s algorithm for recommending videos can show potentially unsuspecting viewers more and more extreme content, and therefore lead to potentially dangerous real-life actions and consequences.

The phenomenon of how social media, hate, and criminal violence all intersect and interact is still widely misunderstood, but Kevin and Joseph are making some important and provocative contributions to the discourse here. If you do a quick Google search on “YouTube fair right radicalization” and you’ll see an almost unlimited number of search results of news articles that reaffirm the theory that YouTube’s unique recommendation algorithm is responsible for radicalizing innocent people, especially young people, which has really troubling implications for YouTube’s entire business model.

What Kevin and Joseph’s research surfaced was maybe something even more troubling — that the far-right voices online may not be creating radicals, but they may be finding them, building a community for them, and activating them.

Referenced in this episode:

“Maybe It’s Not YouTube’s Algorithm That Radicalizes People.” Wired.com, October 23, 2019.

“Study: YouTube's Fringe Video Viewers Aren't Passive Zombies.” Reason.com, October 24, 2019.

"Donald Trump Jr walks out of Triggered book launch after heckling – from supporters." The Guardian, November 10, 2019.

Geeta Gandbhir is a filmmaker who has spent the last several decades working to tell stories about justice, systems, and social movements. She has worked with award-winning directors and producers like Spike Lee, Robert Altman, Sam Pollard, Perri Peltz, and Ed Norton on documentary projects like "When the Levees Broke", "Whatʼs Going On: The Life Of Marvin Gaye", "A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers," and “I Am Evidence". She has been nominated for six Emmy Awards and won two. As editor, she’s won an Oscar and four Peabody Awards.

We spoke with Geeta about “Why We Hate,” a six-part documentary that she co-directed with Sam Pollard, which aired recently on the Discovery Network. Co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Alex Gibney, “Why We Hate” is one of the most exhaustive projects that we’ve seen in popular media about some of the many factors that are driving the rise in extremism and hate around our world. It looks at this troubling phenomenon from a variety of angles and looks to some really interesting suggestions about what each of us can do about it.

Referenced in this episode:

"Why We Hate," Go.Discovery.com.

Dr. Neil Johnson is a professor of physics at George Washington University who leads a new project there that -- in their words -- combines cross-disciplinary fundamental research with data science to attack complex real-world problems. In our case, we’re obviously interested in how he and his colleagues are mapping the vast and complicated world of online hate.

He came to our attention after some of his research was mentioned during a recent U.S. Senate Hearing on Violence, Extremism & Digital Responsibility. We have abundant evidence that shows us that online organizing and hate-speech can leap into instances of real world violence, so understanding how and why this world works is critically important. Dr. Johnson’s research revealed a number of surprising things about how these networks emerge and interact, and he describes a few pretty provocative ways that what he calls “hate clusters” could be addressed or at least made less effective.

His team has created a literal online map of these hate clusters, and you can find links to their research below. Their work is a really powerful example of how methods from an different fields of research -- in this case, physics -- can be brought to bear in finding solutions to problems that are making our world more dangerous.

Referenced in this episode:

“Novel Mapping Model Tracks How Hate Spreads and Adapts Online.” GWToday, August 21, 2019.

“The physics professor who says online extremists act like curdled milk.” The Guardian, August 23, 2019.

“U.S. Senate hearing on Violence, Extremism and Digital Responsibility.” C-Span, September 18, 2019

Sarah Marquez-Berestecky co-facilitates the Anti-Racism & Cultural Competency -- or AARC -- work of Bridge City Community Church in South Chattanooga.

Sarah is a third-generation Mexican-American who was born and raised in Texas and grew up navigating what it was like living as a light-skinned Latina in America. She’s a nationally trained community organizer, and she was inspired her to develop ARCC after relocating to Chattanooga to join Bridge City Community. Sarah and her husband, Jonathan, live with their kids in the East Lake neighborhood of Chattanooga. You can learn more about her work at DismantleRacism.com.

Referenced in this episode:
Ibram X. Kendi Says No One Is 'Not Racist.' So What Should We Do? NPR, August 15, 2019.

Tim Fitzsimons in a staff reporter covering LGBTQ issues for NBC Out and NBC News. He previously worked as a Washington reporter for Marketplace radio and as a producer and reporter at National Public Radio.

Referenced in this episode:
Tennessee teen dies by suicide after being outed online. NBCNews.com, September 30, 2019.
18 Transgender Killings This Year Raise Fears of an ‘Epidemic’. New York Times, September 27, 2019.
Only 0.1 percent of elected officials are LGBTQ, new report finds. NBCNews.com, June 22, 2018.

You can subscribe to Tim's newsletter and more of his coverage here and follow him on Twitter.

The Scanner is a production of the Mayor's Council Against Hate and the American Diversity Report.

Amy Spitalnick is the Executive Director of Integrity First for America, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that specializes in filing legal challenges against the leaders of white supremacist movements and other hate groups. Amy has over a decade of experience in this world, having worked for a number of federal, state, and local campaigns and advocacy efforts. She most recently served as Communications Director and Senior Policy Advisor to New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood and was previously an advisor in New York City Mayor’s Office and Communications Director in the New York State Senate.

IFA is perhaps best known right now for the involvement in Sines v Kessler, the lawsuit filed by a coalition of Charlottesville community members against the Nazis and white supremacists responsible for the violence that took place there in August 2017. Read more about all of their projects and ongoing litigation at their website and keep up with them on Twitter.

Writings referenced in this episode:
Anti-Semitic attackers aren't lone wolves. They're a group hiding in plain sight. CNN.com, April 29, 2019.
Why the El Paso shooter isn’t being charged with terrorism. Vox.com, August 8, 2019.
Charlottesville's white supremacists are being targeted by a law that took down the KKK. Think.NBCNews.com, August 12, 2019.

The Scanner is a production of the Mayor's Council Against Hate and the American Diversity Report.

Todd Green is an Associate Professor of Religion at Luther College and a nationally recognized expert on Islamophobia. Professor Green served as a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. State Department in 2016 and 2017, where he analyzed the impact of anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe on efugee and migrant policies, and human rights. He has also written extensively on Islamophobia for the Huffington Post and lectured to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Last year, he published The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West, which examines the political and cultural factors contributing to the rise of Islamophobia after September 11, 2001.

My thanks to Jennah Hyppolite and the staff at WUTC for their production assistance, and to Dr. Jaclyn Michael at UTC for all of her help in making this happen.

If you would like to join the work of the Mayor’s Council Against Hate, please visit cha.city/againsthate.

Writings referenced in this episode:
Rethinking Our Response to Islamophobia, Religica, February 4, 2019
Taking an Inconvenient Stand against Islamophobia, Huffington Post, June 20, 2017
It’s Time to Abandon the Word ‘Terrorism’, Huffington Post, October 12, 2017

The Scanner is a production of the Mayor's Council Against Hate and the American Diversity Report.

Daryl Johnson was the senior domestic terrorism analyst at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence & Analysis from August 2004 to April 2010. Today, he is the owner of DT Analytics, a consulting firm that provides law enforcement training and instruction on domestic extremism. He is the author of “Hateland: A Long, Hard Look at America's Extremist Heart,” which was published earlier this year.

In 2009, Mr. Johnson authored a DHS report that examined the rise in right-wing extremism and tried to warn law enforcement agencies and federal policymakers about the sharp increase in terror threats from white supremacists, white nationalists, and other groups. The report was considered extremely controversial at the time -- so much so that it was formerly retracted by then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano shortly after its release.

Daryl addressed the U.S. Senate in September 2012, where he described extremist ideologies as a “poison” absorbed into one’s mind. In our conversation, we try to look at the root of this poison, why it continues to runs through the veins of so many Americans, and if any possible antidotes may exist.

Referenced in this podcast:
Mr. Johnson's September 2012 testimony to the United States Senate.
“Hateland: A Long, Hard Look at America's Extremist Heart" via Amazon.com

Ryan Broderick is a Senior Reporter at Buzzfeed who has written extensively about how technology keeps accelerating the spread of radicalism, as well as how tech companies and regulators have tried, mostly in vain, to mitigate these effects. You can read Ryan’s coverage at BuzzfeedNews.com and follow him on Twitter.

Essays referenced in this podcast:

• "The Problem Isn't 8chan. It's Americans," August 4, 2019. 
• "This Is How We Radicalized the World", October 29, 2018.