海角大神

It was a little after midnight last week Thursday when Kayla Santosuosso began to put together a volunteer initiative to connect New Yorkers willing to share their commutes with anyone afraid of facing harassment en route.

Reports of racist vandalism and taunts were pouring in after the election of Donald Trump, and the community organizer in Brooklyn hoped that 30 or 40 people in her closest circles might help out to accompany anyone close to where they lived 鈥� people of color, LGBTQ folk, and especially Muslims, who were already telling her they felt a little afraid.

Within days, more than 5,500 people signed up for her project, dubbed "accompany my neighbor."

鈥淲ow, the response to this form has been absolutely incredible 鈥� certainly way, way more than I planned for,鈥� wrote Ms. Santosuosso, deputy director of the Arab American Association of New York, to potential volunteers. 鈥淭hat said, it is clear that you all want to find a way to support and protect your neighbors,鈥� adding that she was now looking for other ways for them to support those feeling marginalized and afraid.

As hate speech and crimes have fostered fear among minorities nationwide, many advocates have been just as surprised at the outpouring of support that they have received 鈥� raising hopes that amid the turmoil of this election, communities can forge greater unity and strength.

鈥淥ver the coming weeks and months I think we are going to see a lot of coalition building and finding strength and sources of hope and solidarity through these efforts,鈥� says Madihha Ahussain, staff attorney at Muslim Advocates in Oakland, Calif. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important for communities to come together 鈥� and I think there's been a lot of this the past few days. That, I think, brings strength to those communities who are impacted, helping them recognize that no one community is going to be alone.鈥�

Many Americans have been horrified by racist acts, from swastikas on the doors of Jewish students in New York City over the weekend to a spray-painted聽鈥淢ake America White Again鈥� on a Little League dugout in upstate New York.

In California, Ms. Ahussain says her organization 鈥撀爈ike others, including The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) 鈥� has been inundated with reports of such incidents across the country. She emphasizes how urgent it is that law enforcement pursue these crimes.

On Monday, the FBI reported that attacks against American Muslims surged by 67 percent in 2015, driving a larger increase in hate crimes nationwide last year. And civil rights groups say that trend has only increased so far in 2016, fueled by the vitriol and rhetoric of this year鈥檚 presidential campaigns.

In recent weeks, violence has also flared on the other side, with Trump supporters being attacked verbally and physically, though the extent of the violence is less clear.

Trump responds

President-elect Trump, in his聽interview with "60 Minutes" that aired on Sunday, said he was 鈥渟o saddened鈥� to hear of hate incidents springing up around the country. 鈥淚鈥檒l say it right to the camera 鈥� stop it," he said. He added, however, that he believed it was only a small number of incidents.

This week Trump鈥檚 transition team has faced furor over his appointment of Stephen Bannon, former executive chairman of Breitbart News, as chief strategist and senior counselor for the president elect. Breitbart is the voice of the "alt-right" movement, which the left has decried as openly racist and anti-Semitic.

Mr. Bannon鈥檚 rise into the highest echelons of power in Washington coincides with his former publication Breitbart News becoming a social-media juggernaut. On election day, the far-right news site garnered more shares, likes, and comments on Facebook than CNN, Buzzfeed, The New York Times, and Fox News. Breitbart cites analytics firm NewsWhip as the source of the ranking.

In what has become in many ways a struggle over the dominant media narrative, Breitbart readers and other conservatives have focused on counter-examples of acts of bias.

And for many conservatives, their social-media feeds contain stories about a number of incidents in which supporters of Trump were attacked for expressing their political views. In the Bronx, resident Corey Cataldo told police that he was accosted on the subway and choked by two men who noticed his 鈥淢ake America Great Again鈥� hat, according to The New York Post.

Liberals 鈥渢ry to make it look like it鈥檚 the Trumpers who are all violent, but it鈥檚 not,鈥� Mr. Cataldo said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the other side, too.鈥�

In Meriden, Conn., a police lieutenant arrested two men, black and Latino, who stopped their car at a traffic island and began to punch and kick a Trump supporter, who was waving a political sign and American flag. After witnessing the encounter, the officer arrested both men 鈥� one of whom was carrying 54 bags of heroin, according to WTNH-TV in Connecticut. 聽

And conservatives have been sharing videos that appear to show attacks of Trump supporters in a California high school and on the streets of Chicago.聽

They also focused on some stories of attacks against minorities that have been discredited. On Sunday, a Breitbart News story reported a 鈥淲ave of Fake 鈥楬ate Crimes鈥� Sweeps anti-Trump Social Media,鈥� which included the story of a female Muslim student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

She had reported that she was beaten, robbed, and had her hijab ripped off by two men, one whom she said was wearing a white 鈥淭rump鈥� hat. Police now say the student admitted she fabricated the story, according to the Washington Post.

'I'm done whining'

Groups such SPLC and the ADL, however, say reports of bias crimes against minorities continue to pour in. Both have urged the president-elect to reconsider his appointment of alt-right provocateur Bannon.

But minorities and others aren't waiting for authorities to take action.聽

Zainab Chaudary and Elizabeth Grotyohann, along with a group of their childhood friends, also wanted to respond to growing incidents of harassment and vandalism. A lot of their family members and other friends said聽they didn鈥檛 really know what Muslims and other marginalized groups were going through. So together they聽started compiling incidents on a website called聽And Then They Came For Us, allowing people to share their stories.

鈥淏ut I know that people respond more to positivity,鈥� says Ms. Chaudary, a public relations specialist for ReThink Media in Washington. 鈥淭hat resonates better with folks than just the doom and gloom, so we wanted to include stories of all the allies from non-marginalized communities who are talking about the proactive, concrete actions that people are taking in their neighborhoods.鈥�

Among them was a woman named Zahra, who 鈥� while struggling to understand her fellow Americans better in the election's aftermath聽 鈥� got talking with her Uber driver, Roy. A Vietnam vet and former Air Force soldier who had voted for Donald Trump, he expressed sympathy that she might be facing deportation 鈥� assuming she was an immigrant.

In the past that would have angered her, she wrote, since she was born in the US. This time, she engaged with him 鈥� and they even ended up discussing politics over dinner.

鈥淚鈥檓 done whining about wanting to make a difference, but being hesitant to make the first move towards understanding perspectives and opinions that do not align with my own,鈥� wrote Zahra in her post, smiling in a selfie with Roy. "From now on, I鈥檓 going to do my part, however small it may be, to build bridges and not walls.鈥�