Dangerous speech rose and spread at alarming rates in the United States since the 2016 election, targeting marginalized racial, ethnic and religious communities, immigrants, undocumented persons, refugees, LGBTQIA+, and persons with disabilities.

After conducting an in-depth scoping of 400+ organizations working to combat hate and division across the country, the Nexus Fund saw a clear need for more tools and resources to strengthen resiliencies at the community level. To support the Nexus Fund's U.S. programming targeting hyper-local organizations in the deep South and Midwestern regions, CIT trained frontline activists in Dallas, Texas in "collaborative advocacy strategies", to help participants mitigate identity-based violence in the U.S.

Dangerous speech is defined by the Dangerous Speech Project as any form of communication (speech, text, or images) that can increase the risk that its audience will condone or participate in violence against members of another group.