The Michigan Daily: Raoul Wallenberg Institute hosts panel on forces behind hatred

Originally published by The Michigan Daily

March 12, 2025

By Alexis Bell

About 160 students and community members gathered in the University of Michigan’s Kinesiology Auditorium to attend the panel “What are the driving forces behind hatred?” hosted by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. Jeffrey Veidlinger, the director of the institute, facilitated a discussion between two activists addressing the steps that can be taken to address anti-semitism and racism. The panelists were Eric Ward, a civil rights leader and executive vice president of nonprofit racial justice organizationRace Forward, and Amy Spitalnick, the current CEO of the Jewish Council of Public Affairs,

In the opening remarks, Veidlinger said the goal of the event was to discuss the roots of hatred in the U.S., especially as hatred is becoming more prominent in today’s political climate.

“We’ll highlight the connecting threads between all forms of ethno-religious hatred and examine the prospects for overcoming differences in pursuit of inclusive, multiracial and multicultural democracy,” Veidlinger said. “I do want to acknowledge today that we are facing a growing number of challenges in the pursuit of an inclusive democracy. Our work together is therefore more important than it has ever been, and nowhere is this struggle more consequential than right here on our college campuses.”

Ward shared that he decided to join the fight against hatred when music genres that brought the Black community together faced white misappropriation.

“What ultimately brought us together was something new, something called punk rock and hip hop,” Ward said. “And I’m going to tell you, in 1978-79 we didn’t know the difference between the two. That scene came under attack by folks who were hardcore racist, who sought to kind of disrupt the music scene, and many of us were left with a choice. What do we do? Do we abandon this one thing that we love and brings us together, right? Or do we fight for it?”

Spitalnick previously served as executive director for Integrity First For America, which recently won a lawsuit against neo-Nazi organizers of the 2017 Charlottesville rally, a violent rally held in opposition to the removal of Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, N.C. She said her activism began with her grandparents, who are Holocaust survivors. Their stories and her ability to grow up in a world different from theirs inspired her to pursue advocacy work.

“For me, in many ways, the moment where it felt the Band-Aid was ripped off was in Charlottesville in August of 2017,” Spitalnick said. “I remember watching those images of neo-Nazis with porches descending on a college campus. ‘Jews will not replace us in blood and soil,’ specifically targeting the black neighborhoods in Charlottesville, surrounding the synagogue … while carrying semi automatic weapons and ultimately, of course, murdering a young woman named Heather Heyer and injuring many others. That alone, watching those images from Charlottesville,was enough to shock many of us”

Veidlinger asked the panelists what they saw as the driving forces of hate. Ward listed three driving forces of hatred that converge to form white supremacy: stolen resources, slavery and misogyny.

“The organizing of that hate, in order to impact the lives of other people, is what we’re really talking about, and it’s what Jeff is asking,” Ward said. “So there’s the stolen resources, there’s channels of slavery, and there’s a third thing we don’t like to talk about. Even in the Civil Rights Movement, but important today: the control of sexuality, the control of women — misogyny. These are the three pillars that allowed the organization of society. It is a system, upon which we all are defending, this is white supremacy.”

Spitalnick explained how her understanding of hatred has developed from lies surrounding Jewish community and how stereotypes are used as a tool of oppression.

“When we think of antisemitism, we understand it as a basic form of prejudice, because of who we are, how we pray or don’t pray, what we eat or don’t eat,” Spitalnick said. “But ultimately, antisemitism also operates in this unique way, in that it is a conspiracy theory that’s rooted in tropes and lies about Jewish control and power. It is so extrinsically linked as this animated force of hate, and it’s so hard to separate them at a time when our communities are being pitted against each other.”

Ward said when he saw the invitation from the University, he was eager to accept since he views college campuses as a starting point for change in society.

“When I got the invitation to come to this event, the first thing I thought was, ‘I’m absolutely accepting this event.’” Ward said. “I tend to pick campuses that can serve as case studies of how you govern in a multiracial society. This campus fits that. It has the diversity, it even has some of the tension, it even has a strong faculty. … If we can’t get it right here, how are we going to get it in the larger society?”