As hate crimes are on the rise, communities are rewriting the entire playbook on healing from this crisis, proving the antidote to hate isn’t more fear, it’s connection.
Health equity educators and advocates are working to inspire hope and healing in place of racial hatred and cultural divides. With racism influencing health outcomes and contributing to inequities, efforts to address harmful narratives and advance healing are increasingly urgent.
“We believe mental health and wellbeing are at the heart of health equity, and the hostility that is being directed towards communities of color now is not good for mental health,” said Gail C. Christopher, executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity.
More than half of all 5,800 race, ethnicity, or ancestry hate crimes reported in 2024 were against Black people; 13% of the crimes were against Hispanic or Latino people. And anti-Black hate crimes increased 81% since 2015, according to the 2024 FBI Hate Crime Statistics Act Report, published in 2025.
The American Psychological Association’s 2025 Stress in America survey found that divisiveness is a stressor among many adults, with “62% of U.S. adults saying societal division is a significant source of stress in their lives.” Respondents to NCHE’s annual Heart of America Poll: The Power of Racial Healing acknowledge deep divisions but are hopeful: 74 percent believe common ground is possible, and half report a strong sense of neighborhood community.
Those findings helped inform NCHE’s recent virtual town hall, “Ensuring Safety and Security in Communities Today,” where health equity and civic leaders, scholars, and activists shared their success stories for uplifting communities and reshaping harm and violence narratives.
The event was grounded in the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) framework, designed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to give communities a blueprint to address the historic and ongoing effects of racism using the core elements of narrative change through truth-telling, and racial health through trust- and relationship-building.
Richard and Dawn Collins shared their work with the 2nd Lieutenant Richard W. Collins III Foundation, which they launched after their son was murdered in a 2017 racially motivated attack at University of Maryland, just days before his Bowie State University graduation. To help undo false race-based narratives, the Foundation’s Social Justice Alliance (SJA) provides Bowie State and University of Maryland students with learning and service opportunities.
False narratives about community safety have persisted recently. For example, President Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. to control crime there. But, in 2024, violent crime there hit a record 30-year low, according to the U.S. Department of Justice figures.
Narrative power is essential according to RaShall M. Brackney, a distinguished visiting professor of practice at George Mason University who studies policing and race.
“Whoever controls the narrative, controls the resources, controls the policies, and controls the deployment of it,” Brackney said.
Christopher stresses that love must be a key element of those efforts.
“We have to understand at a spiritual level, the opposite of fear and hatred is love, and we need to have the ability to express that for all of humanity,” she said.
Be a change agent for community healing
1. Question and disrupt harmful narratives about safety and crime in your sphere of influence.
2. Lead with love by building relationships across difference.
3. Donate, volunteer, or advocate alongside community-led healing efforts.
4. Share your story of racial healing or overcoming violence. Stories change minds.
5. Choose to embrace difference with curiosity rather than be suspicious of it.
