Apr 9, 2022 3 min read

As of a couple of years ago at least, Pennsylvania was ranked No. 1 in the nation for beer barrels produced, pretzel consumption and mushroom production.

More recently, and much more worryingly, Pennsylvania has been ranked No. 1 in the United States for hateful, white supremacist and racist propaganda, a dubious distinction the commonwealth needs to combat vigorously.

According to a report released in March by the Anti-Defamation League, there were 473 reported incidents of white supremacist propaganda cropping up in Pennsylvania in 2021, whether in the form of graffiti being sprayed on walls, stickers, signs or fliers. Pennsylvania also saw a spike in hate crimes in 2021, with 255 being reported last year. That’s the most in the last 25 years. It’s also more than the three years that preceded it combined.

Many of the incidents were antisemitic, and some of the groups credited with spreading the rancid propaganda are organizations with names like White Lives Matter and Patriot Front. Perhaps this is just another example of incivility and madness that has gripped some Americans as a result of the isolation and uncertainty bred by the coronavirus pandemic. Politicians and media figures, mostly on the right, have also given a green light to opponents of tolerance and diversity through both subtle insinuations and spreading outlandish and bizarre conspiracy theories. Remember “Jewish space lasers” from last year?

After the release of the report, Gov. Tom Wolf said, “This can’t be who we are.”

“Pennsylvania was founded as a commonwealth, as a place which was open to folks from every religious background and any part of the world,” Wolf continued. “This is who we are.”

Bills have been introduced in the General Assembly that would strengthen existing laws that penalize hate speech and crimes, but they have not gained much traction. For example, state Sen. Jay Costa, a Democrat from Allegheny County, has introduced measures that would establish a system where tipsters could anonymously report hate crimes on Pennsylvania university and college campuses, and also provide training for police in identifying and investigating hate crimes. Pennsylvania also remains the only state in the Northeast that does not have protections on the books for sexual orientation and gender identity.

If we want Pennsylvania to thrive, it must be seen by the outside world as a place “too busy to hate,” as city leaders said about Atlanta decades ago. Atlanta was once at the heart of the Jim Crow South, but we have seen time and again that hate and small-minded bigotry is a contagion not confined to just one part of the country.

After the horrific massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, T-shirts cropped up throughout the region with the words “Stronger Than Hate” on them. With the release of the Anti-Defamation League report, however, we have to take an honest look at ourselves and admit that hate can be durable and tenacious.