Transformative stories in the face of hate speech and anti-rights

This March 21, 2026, the  International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is celebrated, as it is every year . But this year it comes at a time when hate speech and anti-rights rhetoric have become increasingly visible, and even normalized, in public debate and in the digital environment.

Racist expressions, the stigmatization of groups and collectives, and messages that associate diversity with threat, circulate more and more normally on social networks, in political discourse, in the media, or in everyday conversations. Faced with this, we must go beyond a reactive response and begin to transform these narratives in an articulated and collective way.

We know that language is not neutral . Words matter because they help us construct the reality in which we live, and in the case of hate speech and anti-rights discourse, this reality is simplified to the point of being reduced to a binomial of 'us vs. them'. This creates conceptual and mental frameworks that condition perception, dehumanize and construct the enemy. This type of narrative shapes a perception of the world and constructs a way of looking at reality that fuels fear and legitimizes exclusion.

This phenomenon is increasingly intensifying in the digital environment. Social networks have become spaces where hate speech is produced (and reproduced), circulated and gained ground. Platforms like Instagram amplify emotional and polarizing content, often over that which provides context or a more complex vision of current reality. Algorithms prioritize what generates immediacy and evokes emotions such as anger, fear or indignation. They favor strategies such as 'rage bait' (provoking indignation), or information saturation , which disorient and hinder critical reflection by citizens . The constant consumption of short content reinforces simplistic views and generates information fatigue that distances us from understanding our environment. Promoting the visibility (and virality) of the most simplistic and aggressively tone-delivered discourses.

These dynamics become especially visible in global conflicts, such as the war in Gaza, where narratives (also created through images) construct frameworks that legitimize who is the victim, who is the aggressor and what is considered socially acceptable or not. As Johan Galtung suggests, there are 'invisible' forms of violence (such as structural and cultural) that legitimize and sustain direct violence, but also hatred and polarization. And where certain views and discourses are normalized that condition the perception of what should not be.

This same logic is reproduced in our daily lives. When we repeat stereotypes, simplify complex realities or consume information without context, we dilute our empathy and ability to recognize others, and it becomes increasingly difficult for us to understand the complexity of social and political issues , contributing, without being fully aware of it, to legitimizing violence, discrimination and inequalities, both local and global.

For this reason, it is increasingly necessary to build alternative and transformative narratives , stories that help us understand, beyond reacting, that connect us, instead of dividing us. Explaining complexity, placing human dignity, the defense of rights and the value of diversity at the center. Along this path, the Cooperation and Education for Global Justice initiatives, such as the Transformative Narratives Laboratory , are committed to generating new collective imaginaries, which help us combat discrimination and racism. For this reason, it is necessary to gain ground on hate speech and anti-rights with words and stories that reinforce respect and recognition of the other.