Is Hate the New Normal?

It wasn’t so long ago that phrases like “go back to where you came from” were the stuff of hushed insults. Ugly, but whispered. These days it seems more and more as if it’s a sentiment that’s being echoed aloud. From rising anti-Asian assaults in U.S. cities to self-segregating communities taking root in the Ozarks, open xenophobia isn’t hiding in the shadows anymore. It’s standing on the street with a megaphone.

Look back at the arrival of COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, terms like “Chinese virus” and “kung flu” began to circulate widely, amplified by figures in power even as public health officials warned that such rhetoric could spark backlash and violence (PBS). Unfortunately, as we all well know, they proved to be right. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino found anti-Asian hate crimes in major cities increased by a whopping 149% just in 2020 alone.

Consider New York City. Before the pandemic, you could count the number of Anti-Asian hate crimes on one hand, but by 2021, the NYPD recorded more than 130 cases. Those are just the ones that were actually reported. A 2023 survey from the Asian American Federation found that more than half of Asian New Yorkers who experienced violence or harassment never reported it, often out of fear, language barriers, or a mistrust of the system.

But what we are experiencing now goes beyond COVID and just one community. There’s a larger cultural drift happening in America—one that’s turning diversity and inclusion into lightning rods in the national conversation. Terms like “woke” and “DEI”, which once centered efforts to right historical wrongs, have become political punching bags. Even South Park, that bellwether of pop culture sarcasm, took a swipe in its Season 27 premiere, riffing on the idea that “woke is dead” and poking at how identity politics have become both mainstream and divisive.

This isn’t just a few talking heads yapping on social media or cable news. It’s showing up in the real world, resulting in real consequences. In Arkansas, a group called Return to the Land has set up a community in the Ozarks described as a “safe haven” for people of European descent. That ain’t subtle. As reported by The Forward and The Independent, the group has explicitly excluded Jewish people, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. Cloaked in language about “heritage” and “Christian values,” it’s a modern-day blueprint for segregation. And it’s drawing residents.

Is this just fringe behavior? Consider it more like a canary in a coal mine. The ideology behind it is anything but fringe. Following the Black Lives Matter movement and debates around police funding, certain politicians and pundits have framed diversity itself as a threat, an assault on so-called “traditional” or “white” culture, which reflects an obvious backlash happening against the visibility and demands of all marginalized communities.

What’s worse, it’s not just social. It’s become institutional, reflected in more recent immigration policy. In June 2025, the CATO Institute reported that arrests of non-criminal immigrants by ICE surged a staggering 1100% since 2017 as part of a new federal push to meet politically driven quotas. The numbers while shocking point to a system that’s being increasingly shaped by fear, not facts.

This isn’t just an Asian issue. Or Hispanic. Or a Black, Muslim, or queer. It’s an American issue, taking root in American society. When hatred starts to sound normal, when it’s embedded in policy, in entertainment, or in everyday life, it begins to wear down the rights and dignity of everyone it touches, and it doesn’t ever stop with one group. If all of us don’t push back on these sentiments that are taking ahold of our country, if we let this become the new normal, hate will invariably win. And then, everybody loses.

Photo by Jason Leung/Unsplash