What Can Combat Hate Speech? Why Flower Speech Of Course!

Via Shanly (thanks for this!) via Medium

hate speech

llustration by Willow Brugh (@willowbl00) [From original article]

Flower Speech: New Responses to Hatred Online by Susan Benesch, is a little beacon of light in the sea of despair that is online hate speech. In the vein of Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything, where she describes some grass roots environmental-protest movements from around the world that are having an impact on local policies, Benesch highlights some ways communities are dealing with hate speech. From Myanmar's Flower Speech movement to Kenya's self-policing of the Kenyans On Twitter feed during the 2013 election, to Jezebel petitioning their parent company Gawker to have  violent Gifs disallowed from the comments section, Benesch demonstrates how civilized behavior when practiced en masse not only overpowers the haters but converts it.