Hate incidents
Hate incidents and hate crimes are acts of violence or hostility directed at people because of who they are or who someone thinks they are. For example, verbal abuse directed towards someone because of their actual or perceived disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
Hate incidents can include but are not limited to:
- Verbal abuse
- Physical attacks
- Threats of violence
- Hoax calls/abusive messages/hate mail
- Online abuse
- Displaying or circulating discriminatory literature
- Harm or damage to things such as home/pets/vehicles
- Graffiti and arson
- Malicious complaints
Harassment
Harassment is a course of action (not an isolated action) that amounts to unwanted conduct, directed at a specific person or group, that is intimidating, hostile, humiliating, or offensive, whether or not that was intended.
Examples may include:
- Offensive or intimidating comments or gestures
- Unwanted physical conduct or â€کhorseplay’, including touching, pinching, pushing, grabbing, brushing past someone, invading their personal space and more serious forms of physical or sexual assault
- Mocking, mimicking or belittling a person because of their individual characteristics
- Patterns of behaviour that are received as microaggressions
- Outing or threatening to out someone as gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans, or unwanted questioning about a person's identity, including about their sexual orientation or gender identity
- Ignoring or shunning someone because of their characteristics, for example, by deliberately excluding them from a conversation or a social activity.
- Continued invitations to a person to engage in social activity after it has been made clear by that person that such suggestions are unwelcome
- Sending material (either physically or online) that is of a sexual or derogatory nature or that some people may find offensive (See also the university's Email, Internet and Social Media (EISM) Policy).
Microaggressions
'Microaggression' is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalised groups. Examples might include:
- Telling someone "Your English is so good"
- Calling something you find strange "gay"
- Telling a woman she needs to smile more
- Asking a person of colour "Where are you really from?"
You can read more about these terms in the NSFH policy document.