InvisibleHate.org
Invisiblehate.org is a website dedicated to identifying and describing the locations of the remaining 700 statues commemorating Confederate military officers and more than 1,600 other political symbols of the Confederacy. The site, established in 2020, is an apparent outgrowth of the anti-racism movement arising out of the wave of Black Lives Matter protests that arose in the Summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the wave of spontaneous actions taken against statues and other symbols erected since the Jim Crow period as part of The Lost Cause reaction against Reconstruction of the Union. The movement to remove these symbols of hatred has been very controversial and supporters of the statues and other symbols (including President Donald J. Trump) have fought back hard. Although most of the symbols have been removed legally, as this site proposes, at times there has also been violent reaction from both sides.
The name of the site is an obvious illusion to the Ku Klux Klan which was a private, secret or invisible organization that was instrumental in financing, designing, sculpting and installing many of these monuments, along with more public and legitimate groups such as Sons of the Confederacy and Daughters of the Confederacy for descendants of soldiers serving in the Confederate Army. Numerous instances of individuals portrayed in the monuments were also members of the Klan.
A scroll-down menu in the upper right of each page includes links entitled Home page, Learn And Act, Share Your Voice, About Invisible Hate, Instructions and FAQ.
At the bottom of the About Invisible Hate page is a list of three Partners who appear to be the sponsors and owners of the site: 22Square, MarketSmiths and m ss ng p eces.
Under the heading of Instructions are a series of five pages. The first is a screen with a black background and the non-interactive image of an interactive map of the territory of the Confederate States of America with small green dots numbered from 1-18, the instruction to "Discover Monuments on an Interactive Map" and a clickable right arrow. Clicking the arrow opens a second (third, fourth and fifth) About screen. There is also an interactive Skip button that links to the actual interactive map. The first time it is clicked the viewer is asked to allow the site to identify your location. The map then tailors view of a national U.S. map to the locations nearest your location.
The second screen instructs viewers to Tap Or Click On Monument Icons To Learn the Real History Behind Each Monument. The page also has a Skip button which links to the map. The third screen (first action screen) instructs viewers to Write To The Local Representative In That Monument's District to Demand Its Removal. The fourth screen (also an action screen) is in many ways the most interesting. It invites viewers to Take a Picture If You Are In Front Of A Monument Or Pick An Image From Our Library and Make Your Mark On A Monument With A Carousel Of Interactive Stickers. The page also advises viewers that Note: Live Camera Function Is Only Available On a Mobile Devise Within 1 Mile of A Monument. The final (another action) screen instructs the viewer to Download the Image To Your Device And Then Share On Social Media. It adds Don't Forget To Tag @invisiblehate, Link To The Site And Use The Hashtag @tearthemdown! The Start button on this page also links to the interactive map.
The site enables each user to auto-generate an email template to the appropriate representative and make their opinions known.
The FAQ page offers answers to frequently asked questions. While there were only 11 states that seceded and joined The Confederate States of America in the Civil War against the Union of the remaining states, the FAQ page notes that there are confederate monuments in 31 states including New York and California.