Independent creative agency 22Squared and the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have designed and built a site accessible from mobile and desktop that identifies more than 700 confederate monuments and 1,800 symbols in the United States.

22Squared calls the platform, three years in the making, Invisible Hate — “an interactive digital and social education experience aimed at exposing historical truths.”

The site is intended to help people identify and understand symbols of racism and hate in their own cities while providing easy access to email templates that ask local and regional legislators to remove the symbols and statues, many of which are taxpayer funded.

The monuments were intended to normalize hate and oppression, according to Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP. “The statues represent political statements that are no longer valid,” he said. “In Germany there are no statues of Hitler, Adolf Hitler high schools, no carvings or streets named after him. But we have not forgotten the Holocaust and devastation to the world. We can remember these events without celebrating them.”

Shortly after World War II, the Allied powers occupying Berlin ordered the removal of monuments that portrayed Germany’s national and military character. Many of them are now displayed at the Citadel, a 16th-century fortress in Berlin’s western district of Spandau that was used by the German army during WWII to test chemical weapons, according to one report.

Rose believes the statues in the United States should be donated to a university, where they would stand in a graveyard to show future generations just how “asinine” America has been with regard to racism. The website does not condone people taking the removal of these statues and symbols into their own hands, but rather encourages them to contact their local and state government representatives.  

Invisible Hate is the brainchild of Alex Lukacs, creative director at 22Squared. Courtney Jones, manager of business development at 22Squared, help to drive the project.

Lukacs grew up in the south and remembers hearing about confederate monuments in her hometown. “I probably passed them hundreds of times, but I really never considered them,” she said. “They were invisible to me. I felt ignorant that I didn’t know anything about them, so I dug into their past and realized the history. If I felt this way, I think others had a similar story too.”

The search engine, based on location, helps people identify the monuments that are closest to them. It provides the history of the symbols and the monuments, and allows anyone to submit a request to the government for their removal. It also allows people to share their feelings about the monuments and post it to social media.

The name of the project — Invisible Hate — only focuses on confederate monuments and symbols, but the term originates from the message that discrimination against people should not go unnoticed — not only “colored” people, but those of any race and religion, even those with disabilities.

Invisible Hate is an ongoing cause, Jones said.