The boldface, all-caps headline on Canary Mission’s homepage says: IF YOU'RE RACIST, THE WORLD SHOULD KNOW. Specifically, it's targeting those it believes to be anti-Semitic.

Imagine Sophie Hurwitz's shock to discover her name and face on the shadowy, anonymous site. Hurwitz is a sophomore at Wellesley College and a graduate of John Burroughs School. She is Jewish and very involved in her Jewish community. She is also an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights.

A friend contacted her to tell her that her name and photo were listed on Canary Mission. Sure enough, there was her photo and personal information among dossiers on student activists, professors and organizations that support Palestinian rights. The site claims to have sent names of listed students to prospective employers. The blacklist is designed to intimidate students and faculty members and prevent them from criticizing American policies about Israel.

"I was pretty freaked out," she said. "Strangers on the internet are being fed lies about me." She was most worried about becoming isolated from her Jewish community and wondered if she could pursue legal action. She was included on the site for the "crime" of speaking publicly about why she would refuse to accept a Birthright Israel trip, a free 10-day trip offered by a not-for-profit educational organization to all American Jews ages 18 to 32. Hurwitz said the trips are one-sided propaganda tools used to justify the occupation in the West Bank and Gaza and abuse of Palestinians.

In fact, it's her deeply rooted faith in Jewish values that compels her to speak out for equal rights and justice. She's a member of Jewish Voices for Peace and has a fellowship with the Jewish Women's Archive, a nonprofit historical organization. She says she's luckier than other students doxxed by the site since her employment has not been affected.

She heard about one young man who legally changed his name after being blacklisted. He was worried about his application to medical schools. Others have had to delete all their social media accounts after getting harassed and being told to kill themselves.

"It's a deliberate attempt to shut down dialogue on Palestinian issues," she said.

Canary Mission is not the only shadowy group online attempting to intimidate and silence college students. It's not the only organized effort that wants to equate criticism of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism.

Shaadie Ali, of Madison, Wisconsin, graduated last year from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in geological engineering and geology. His name and photo appeared on the site after he attended a conference in 2017 on Students for Justice in Palestine. He did not speak at the conference.

"I was pretty shocked and freaked out and scared," he said. He was thinking about applying to law school and looking for jobs. The doxxing sites know how to use search engine optimization, so its listing is one of the first results on a student's name. His grandparents and uncles live in the West Bank, and he is afraid the Israeli government will deny him entry based on his name being on the anonymous site.

He, like Hurwitz, figured they would be fighting an expensive and losing battle to try to get their names removed.

"I'm going to let my actions speak for myself," Hurwitz said. "I try really hard to fight for what I believe in," she said. "I love being Jewish. I love my Jewish community. I love my people."

She was heartbroken that this personal attack came from within that same community. "The Jewish community can and should be better than this," she said. "I'm working toward that."

Recently, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar rightly apologized for tweeting that U.S. support for pro-Israeli policies is "all about the Benjamins." Her tweet played into centuries of conspiracy theories about Jewish money corrupting Western politics, and she needed to become more aware of the damage in perpetuating these tropes. There are ways to argue for more just treatment in the Middle East without resorting to anti-Semitism.

It's also wrong to conflate any criticism of Israel, like Hurwitz's rejection of the Birthright trip or Ali's attendance at a conference, with anti-Semitism. And unlike an elected public official, these are students who face threats and loss of career opportunities. For all the conversation about conservative free speech being stifled on campuses and conservative students feeling unsafe about sharing their views, where is the chorus of voices condemning the shady tactics used by Canary Mission?

"A lot of people who hand-wring about free speech, they don't really care about this," Ali said. "Where were they when I got doxxed?"

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If you’ve never had the impulse to darken your face to mimic another race, blackface can seem archaic, part of a racist form of entertainment people engaged in long ago. Sadly, that’s pretty naive.

“Blackface, particularly in white sororities and fraternities, is as common as cheerleaders on a football field,” according to Lawrence Ross, author of “Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses.” Ross is talking about young people in this present moment. Not middle-aged or older people getting in trouble for decades-old racist acts. A Google search for college students and blackface will bring up plenty of contemporary examples, including the University of Oklahoma white sorority girl caught earlier this year on Snapchat in blackface saying what sounded like the n-word.

There is a strange yet enduring appeal to blackface and racist tropes among certain groups of white college students who presumably should know better. Blackface has dominated the headlines for the past several days. Ralph Northam, the Democratic governor of Virginia, is roiled by controversy for yearbook pictures of a person in blackface standing next to someone in Ku Klux Klan robes and hood. Mark Herring, the Democratic attorney general, also revealed he wore blackface at a college party in 1980. Last month, Michael Ertel, the Republican secretary of state in Florida, resigned after photos surfaced showing him in blackface dressed as a “Hurricane Katrina victim” at a party. But these incidents are hardly an aberration or spectacles from the past.

“Eighteen- to 21-year-olds reflect the racism in which they grow up,” Ross said. It’s ridiculous to think that colleges and universities are some sort of utopia, free from the prejudices of the past. Students who grow up in predominantly white neighborhoods, attend predominantly white schools and become members of predominantly white organizations can end up insulated from how certain actions impact others, particularly people of color.

“You feel like you are safe to do these things,” Ross said of those in a “whiteness cohort.” In his research, he discovered racist photos in college yearbooks everywhere. In one particular instance, the university refused to let him use a yearbook image in his book because the former student involved is a big donor. Among the recent examples, he cites Paige Shoemaker, a white former student at Kansas State University, who wore a dark clay facial mask, took a picture and captioned it “feels good to finally be a (racial slur)” before sharing it on social media. In her subsequent apology she said, “I am the furthest thing from racist.”

That’s a refrain that comes up frequently when white people apologize for racist statements and behaviors. There is a type of cognitive dissonance in which people believe themselves to be good and moral persons and also believe that people who participate in racist acts are only those who are morally bad. But it’s possible for people to say and do racist things even if they don’t harbor a hatred for people of color.

Another frequent rationalization is that the stunt was simply done in fun with a lack of awareness of how offensive it is. But the accompanying commentary (usually in the photo captions) and context of when blackface is used on college campuses shows that the wearer is displaying some level of contempt, degrading or mocking black people.

“You can feign ignorance and offer rationalizations if you believe you don’t need to be subject to understanding racism,” Ross said. People don’t like to look at racism as being baked into our society and institutions. “They look at it as an individual issue.”

And even in blackface, that individual is never part of the problem. Ross said that in his research of 700 colleges and universities over roughly 70 years, he wasn’t able to find a single instance of black students wearing whiteface to denigrate white people on St. Patrick’s Day.

Blackface says: These people are mockable. I can mock these people because I am in a position of power.

As recently as last fall, NBC host Megyn Kelly said on national TV that she didn’t see anything wrong with blackface as part of Halloween costumes. She later apologized. As far as consequences go, she walked away from her show with $30 million, the remainder of her $69 million contract.

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A stranger contacted Raquita Henderson through a Facebook message wanting to meet with her because she liked her social media posts.

Henderson, a photographer who has 5,000 “friends” on Facebook, didn’t hesitate. She met the stranger for coffee about four years ago. Unless she gets some kind of weird vibe, she says she is happy to meet with anybody looking for some kind of connection. “I just want to be available for people,” she said.

Henderson said the woman seemed sweet. She was new to the St. Louis area and appeared to be struggling. Henderson told her to call if she ever needed company. She didn’t hear her from her for years until before this past Thanksgiving. The woman was having family trouble and needed some gas money to go stay with a friend.

“I can help you with that,” Henderson replied. She sent her gas money. A few months went by, and she received another request. The woman was living out of her car in January, and it was bitterly cold outside. She had found a place to live but needed money for the first month’s deposit.

“If you’ve got a solid plan, I’m sure we can help you,” Henderson said. She described the woman’s situation in a post on her Facebook page and asked if anyone could kick in some funds for her. Within four hours, she had a few hundred dollars. Henderson drove to where the woman was staying that night and handed her the money.

“She gave me a hug” and was very grateful, Henderson said. She messaged her a few times to say how much she appreciated the help.

Many of us might worry about being taken advantage of if a relative stranger asked us for more than a few dollars. I asked Henderson if she wasn’t a little suspicious about the request. She laughed.

“If people have a need, I try to fill the need,” she said. She credits her husband and best friend for keeping an eye out for her to make sure she isn’t getting hustled. “They will stop me from doing too much,” she said.

There’s a body of research that shows that those with less wealth give a greater percentage of their income than wealthier people. A 2014 survey by The Chronicle of Philanthropy found that those earning $200,000 or more per year reduced their giving during the Great Recession and its aftermath by 4.6 percent, while those making less than $100,000 increased their donations by 4.5 percent.

Researchers suggest one reason that the wealthy may find it harder to be more generous is because they see the utility of social connections differently.

Most people can imagine themselves in difficult situations in which they may need to rely on others. The rich are far more insulated from those sorts of concerns. The reasons why some groups give more than others are complex, but empathy is certainly tied to generosity. Neuroscientists at the University of Chicago discovered specific brain markers that predict generosity in children. Their research suggests that encouraging young children to reflect upon the moral behavior of others may foster sharing and generosity in them. Unsurprisingly, kids who grow up in families that prioritize giving time and money to others are more likely to be givers themselves.

In Henderson’s case, she knows what it’s like to get help when you need it. Around this time last year she had a water main break in her office. It was going to cost $3,000 to repair. She posted about her situation on her Facebook page and asked her community to book photography jobs from her, so she could quickly earn the money she needed. Her “friends” came through for her. They bought sessions as gifts for other people. One person bought 10 sessions and told her to give them out to people throughout the year.

“It made me feel appreciated and seen,” Henderson said. Her style of generosity ought to be seen, too.

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