Hate Ends Here

Hate Ends Here patches

Hate will not be extinguished through short gusts of protest.

It will take committment beyond the hashtags and marches.

It will take something simple and profound.

Hate Ends Here symbol

A symbol and a worldview.

Hate Ends Here®

with YOU.

Take Your Stand

About Us

Hate Ends Here is not affiliated with any institution.

It began as a personal passion project of Jason Civjan, a Seattlite frustrated by how Hate of the other —and the fear and divisiveness it generates— continues to be a defining characteristic of human civilization.

As a father, the thought of raising another generation to accept mass incarceration, police brutality, designed inequality, perpetual bullying/harrassment, hate killings, and willful ignorance of human suffering was unconscionable.

This frustration led to a thirst to understand the drivers of Hate —at both the individual and systemic levels— and an obsession to find a simple, effective response to this complex problem.

Hate Ends Here is the result.

In Jason’s words:

I see a world that is always celebrating technological progress and scientific achievement, but —curiously— never seems to make much progress in ensuring basic human dignity is afforded to all its citizens.

We see so many people suffering through great systemic obstacles, obstacles that have stood for centuries, and there is no response.

We see individuals fighting just to exist, and there is no response.

The badge, to me, is a welcome daily reminder that this status quo is unacceptable and of my personal commitment to challenging it.

That was the beginning. With each new patch sold, the community grows, bringing in the viewpoints of the individuals who are making their own path toward the shared humanistic goal of making tomorrow a more tolerant and inclusive place.

We stand together in allegiance to human values.

The courage to confront evil and turn it by dint of will into something applicable to the development of our evolution —individually and collectively— is exciting, honorable.

Maya Angelou, On Facing Evil

Hate Ends Here was conceived as a daily ritual; a tangible reminder of our own inner selves and a palpable connection to the people that surround us.

It is a badge, an accessory that becomes an identity; an identity that defines a community.

When you see someone wearing it, it means something.

It is an individual courageously taking a stand, proclaiming:

  • I will not tolerate the seeds of hate.
  • I will not continue the systemic cycles of hate.
  • I will not forget the common thread of humanity that binds us all.
  • I will not hide my hope.
Fist raised to defeat hate

The badge should become a part of you, to merge with your own personal values and be worn as both a reminder and a reflection of who you are.

As you walk down the street, others will see that there is hope, that there are people who refuse the ready-made constructs of oppression (racism, sexism, ableism,...) that prop up Hateful systems.

Stand With Us

We pledge ourselves to human decency.

Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.

Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

This is a ritual of remembrance.

When you put the patch on in the mornings and when you take it off in the evenings, you pledge:

  • To treat people as individuals.
    Focus on our shared humanity and don't let your assumptions guide you.
  • To presume good intent.
    Without this, there is no listening or attempt to understand.
  • To be a constructive force.
    Spend your energy on bringing more beauty, understanding, and justice into the world.
  • To learn from the past.
    Become a student of world history. Refuse to repeat the errors of humankind.

This is not conformity, but a proclamation of your individual belief.

Take these basic tenets, expand upon them, and find your own way.

Pledge Yourself

We remember the errors of humankind.

To deny the history of a people is to deny their humanity.

Andrew Billingsley, Black Families in White America

Humankind’s history is our shared experience, an experience with glorious peaks and many harrowing disappointments.

To ignore our failures —or attempt to rewrite them— simply ensures that we cloud ourselves in myth, build our foundations in shadowy illusion.

Rather, we must stare clear-eyed into our past, learn from it, and use this knowledge as a solid basis upon which to build a better future.

In nazi Europe, patches of yellow stars and triangles served to erase the humanity of the individual by publicly classifying them into groups of "undesirables". These badges were meant to demean the wearer daily, reminding them that the rest of society viewed them as less than human.

Throughout the world, the color of one's skin has been coopted by racists as a badge of innate character disparities, an idea that has proven pervasive despite being completely unfounded.

Everywhere, the differences amongst us have been leveraged to divide us; to serve as a means for some to raise themselves as superior to others; to justify privledge and absolve cruelty.

This is the source of Hate. It subsumes the beautiful complexity of individuality into the simplified approximations of labels, obscuring the humanity buried underneath.

It is time to repurpose the symbols of segmentation; to create a badge that is worn as an affirmation of the things that bring us together; of the imperfect humanity that unites us all.

Hate Ends Here symbol

Hate Ends Here is a call to history. It is a reminder of the ugliness that lurks in the biases and depravity of humanity. It is to shout, “we will never forget!” and to holler, “we will always aim higher!”

  • Remembrance of history's victims, heros, and perpetrators, so that they may inspire us in our lives.
  • Remembrance of the genocides, lynchings, exclusions, and injustices that have come before our time and those that continue to this day.
  • Remembrance that our job is never going to be done. Hatred will persist, but we can create a community in which it will not penetrate.

In order to truly move forward, we must reconcile our past.

Anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.

James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

Never Forget