To fight climate of fear, rights advocates in US are training people in bystander intervention

With the US seeing a growing culture of fear, particularly among marginalised communities, rights advocates are seeing an interest in people who want to learn what to do when they see an individual in distress.

The Council on American Islamic Relations in the San Francisco Bay Area are holding training sessions to teach people the best practices when a stranger is being attacked or harassed.

"Over the past few years, especially after the first Trump election, there has been a rise in documented hate incidents. There's also a lot of underreporting of hate incidents. A big part of bystander training is elevating human intervention," Ismail Adam, programmes manager with CAIR-SFBA, told The New Arab.

The group's training sessions, which last around two hours, show multiple common scenarios of people from different backgrounds getting harassed, and then explain what a bystander can do to help.

Contrary to what some attendees assume before attending the sessions, the trainers do not advise an aggressive approach to the situation. Instead, they suggest that the bystander ask the target if they want help. Another part of the training is the importance of documentation, such as videotaping, to show proof of the incident.

"Most, if not all, of these attacks happen to a marginalised person in society, who the aggressor thinks is in a weaker position. They're emboldened by their privilege," said Adam.

The bystander training sessions began around seven years ago, prompted by an incident of harassment of members of the LGBTQ+ community over bathroom access. Someone from that community contacted CAIR for advice on addressing such incidents, leading them to see a need for bystander training.

The training sessions, which are advertised in libraries and community centres, are held three to four times a month with 20 to 50 attendees. Interest has increased with harassment and government crackdowns on immigrants, Muslims other marginalised groups.

So far this year, they have trained around 550 people. With more awareness, advocates hope this can be a solution to the "bystander effect" in which many people often means a lack of response due to witnesses assuming others will intervene or not understanding the severity of the incident.

"A lot of times we're nervous to speak up because we don't want to be the only person to speak up in a society where injustice has become normal," said Adam. "We can all beat the bystander effect. When we come together, we can do more than one person alone."