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It's not easy facing a bully, but what do you do when you're confronted with a whole mob of them?

During President Donald Trump's visit to London last week, a crowd of his supporters and anti-Muslim protesters rallied in central London.

The protesters fixated their attention on a bus driven by a headscarf-wearing woman. The mob held up Islamophobic and pro-Trump signs, some shouted racial epithets, and a topless man ran up to the windshield and began verbally assaulting the driver.

It's hard to imagine what to do when you're targeted in a heated situation like that, but one inspiring photo showed the woman's powerful response: a smile.

Here’s tommy Robinson & trump supporters harassing, intimidating and abusing a Muslim female bus driver yesterday.… https://t.co/Ncy2OFdaI6
— Imran khan (@Imran khan) 1531654302.0

The photo went viral in admiration of how she remained so calm, collected, and unfazed by the mob of protesters.

"Yet surrounded by dozens of protesters, the [Muslim woman] driver reacted with almost stereotypical Britishness: w… https://t.co/gSKVYnsuKY
— CJ Werleman (@CJ Werleman) 1531752063.0

Free Tommy and pro-trump protestors harassing & targeting a Muslim bus driver. Look at her bravery. She smiles bac… https://t.co/sIHkzpGNnz
— Yasmin Ahmed (@Yasmin Ahmed) 1531655319.0

Tommy Robinson fanboys harass a Muslim bus driver, while she sits smiling and rolling her eyes. Who's the hero here? https://t.co/CfYL1UIHq5
— Ian Fraser (@Ian Fraser) 1531689067.0

However, some people disagree with celebrating the bus driver's calmness. In their opinion, fascists and racists shouldn't be afforded civility.

Yes that bus driver is brave, bless her for smiling through it, but why should she have to? Absolutely sick of thes… https://t.co/tZKzWw8Kxo
— Shazzy (@Shazzy) 1531692342.0

Absolutely fuck the interpretation that the Muslim bus driver being calm and nice in the face of fascist abuse is s… https://t.co/wGWHlwG0SG
— theresa may tears drinker (@theresa may tears drinker) 1531761646.0

Acts of racism like this are increasing at an alarming rate — particularly in the U.K.

In the United Kingdom, the Muslim and South Asian communities are often targeted by the English Defense League — a white supremacist organization — and far-right politicians. In June 2017, two Muslim cousins were attacked with acid in a hate crime. In October 2017, the U.K. Home Office released a report revealing a 29% increase in hate crimes compared with the previous year. Furthermore, out of all the hate crimes between 2016 and 2017, 78% were racially motivated.

But the headscarf-wearing woman is setting an example and offering us a glimpse of hope. She kept doing her job and refused to be baited by their hate. Despite the racist protests and scare tactics used, we still know that we're on the right side of history.

In 2015, Tom Petty opened up about one of his career regrets: the Confederate flag.

'When they wave that flag, they aren't stopping to think how it looks to a black person.'

Legendary musician Tom Petty passed away Monday, Oct. 2, 2017 at age 66. During his more than 40 years making music, Petty won three Grammys, earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was a true icon who helped shape the future of rock and roll.

There's no shortage of positive stories and playful anecdotes about the singer being shared in the wake of his death, but there's one story in particular that stands out for its humanity as well as its connection to current events.

That story, of course, is about the time Tom Petty expressed regret for his early-career use of Confederate flag imagery.

In 1985, Petty released an album called "Southern Accents."

Originally from Gainesville, Florida, Petty set off to make a concept record about the South — though he later admitted that it lost that "concept" thread along the way. In marketing the record and the tour that followed its release, Petty made use of some pretty heavy Confederate flag imagery.

[rebelmouse-image 19531653 dam="1" original_size="750x466" caption="Petty in a 1986 documentary about the making of "Southern Accents." Image via Richard Schenkman/Vimeo." expand=1]Petty in a 1986 documentary about the making of "Southern Accents." Image via Richard Schenkman/Vimeo.

30 years after the record came out, Petty sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss the Confederate flag, saying he had a few regrets about his relationship to the symbol.

In the interview, which took place hours after South Carolina decided to remove the flag from its statehouse grounds in 2015, Petty showed himself as a man unafraid to admit his mistakes. Describing the flag as "the wallpaper of the South" when he was growing up, Petty explained that in 1985, he hadn't really put a whole lot of thought into what it symbolized.

Two years after he and the band had stopped touring in support of that specific record, Petty noticed more and more fans at his shows were showing up decked out in Confederate memorabilia.

"One night, someone threw [a Confederate flag] onstage," he recalled. "I stopped everything and gave a speech about it. I said, 'Look, this was to illustrate a character. This is not who we are. Having gone through this, I would prefer it if no one would ever bring a Confederate flag to our shows again because this isn't who we are.'"

Petty's moment of self-reflection is a lesson for us all.

Recognizing our mistakes, and correcting for them is one of the most important things we can do as human beings. It's how we grow as people and as a society.

Petty noted that he did find it kind of bizarre that the U.S. seems to be one of the only places where citizens continue to fly the flag of an unrecognized "country" that went to war here and lost but that he understands its contemporary use doesn't necessarily stem from a hateful or racist place. Still, he hoped that others would rethink their support for it, like he did.

Petty performs in 2014. Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images.

"But when [people] wave that flag, they aren't stopping to think how it looks to a black person," he wrote. "I blame myself for not doing that. I should have gone around the fence and taken a good look at it. ... It was dumb and it shouldn't have happened. Again, people just need to think about how it looks to a black person. It's just awful. It's like how a swastika looks to a Jewish person. It just shouldn't be on flagpoles."

So thank you, Tom Petty — for the music as well as the powerful lessons about empathy and self-reflection.

The Trump era of hate isn't defined by Trump alone. Meet Roger Stone.

There's a big cost to normalizing hate.

Note: The following piece includes direct quotes from Roger Stone, some of which include bigoted slurs.

The Trump era has brought with it a lot of things we wouldn't usually consider "normal." A reality TV star caught on camera bragging about sexual assault being elected president? Not normal. That same president putting trust in fringe websites while ignoring his own intelligence briefings and labeling mainstream news outlets "fake news"? Also not normal.

But one of the strangest, most subtle bits of abnormality in this new world is the media renaissance of Trump adviser Roger Stone, who you may recognize from his appearances on cable and network news shows.

Stone chats with the media during a December 2016 visit to Trump Tower. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

For more than 40 years, Stone played a mostly behind-the-scenes role in Republican politics. After Trump's election, that changed.

Also known as "Nixon's man in Washington" (according to Stone's own book), Stone has a long history as a political "dirty trickster" and purveyor of half-baked conspiracy theories on everything from 9/11 to the Kennedy assassination to Obama's birth certificate. He was also a key player in the election of Donald Trump. And, like the president, he prides himself on not being "politically correct."

He has referred to black and Latino journalists as "quota hires," he once ran an anti-Hillary Clinton organization called Citizens United Not Timid (apparently, he really liked the acronym), and this weekend, he went on a sexist Twitter rant, calling a woman identified as Caroline O. a "stupid ignorant ugly bitch."

Those sexist tweets were not an isolated incident.

— (@)

His behavior was enough to get him banned from some of the cable news networks. He was banned from CNN (after calling CNN commentator Ana Navarro an "Entitled Diva Bitch," "Borderline retarded," and "'dumber than dog shit"), from MSNBC ("because of his now very well-known offensive comments"), and from Fox News (Stone says, "I'm banned at Fox because I kick their ass"). Stone became a star only to see it all fade once his more extreme views became more widely known.

You might think that would be the last we saw of him. You'd be wrong. While Stone hasn’t been back on any of the networks that banned him, he has been getting a lot of attention from mainstream networks like NBC and PBS since the election.

So why — if nothing about his misogyny, racism, and penchant for conspiracy theories has changed — is Roger Stone on our TVs again?

Stone recently appeared on NBC's "Today" show to discuss the effect Russia had on the 2016 campaign. In January, he appeared in the PBS "Frontline" documentary "Divided States of America." In April, Netflix will premiere "Get Me Roger Stone," a documentary about the man himself, at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Despite being shunned by major networks during the election, the very same man who quoted Gore Vidal to the New York Times in 2015 — "Never miss the opportunity to have sex or be on television" — seems to be making good on at least the latter half of that statement.

Stone in 1987 during his time as a political consultant for Campaign Consultants Inc. AP Photo/Tom Reed.

So, what is it? Why is Roger Stone being given a platform on our TVs again? And what does it say about what's "normal" in the Trump-era media landscape that a man who tweeted "DIE BITCH" at former New York Times editor Jill Abramson, who he called a "snot-nosed, arrogant, biased liberal — and all around bitch" because the paper didn't review his 2013 book about President Kennedy's assassination, who called former Rep. Michele Bachmann a "tranny," and who called Al Sharpton a "professional negro" is considered palatable for mainstream audiences?

Roger Stone hasn't changed, but maybe we have.

Stone during The New Yorker Festival 2016's "President Trump: Life as We May Know It" panel. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for The New Yorker.

Stone is the canary in the Trump-era normalization coal mine. He is what happens when the country elects Donald Trump president, and he is evidence of a ripple effect that could continue for generations.

Roger Stone, Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones, and others were once fringe elements within the media. Their ideas — sexist, hateful, and based in paranoia and conspiracy theories — were rejected for those very reasons. When people like them, whose arguments and careers are built upon a lifetime of bad behavior, are given platforms and aren't held responsible for their actions and attitudes, we start to become numb to just how extreme their views are. When we become indifferent to harmful viewpoints and people, we redefine "normal" — and not for the better.

This is not normal.

Hate is not normal. Bigotry, misogyny, racism, and xenophobia are not acceptable "alternative" viewpoints. And people who promote those messages should not become just one more cog in the cable news machine. We cannot let that become our new reality. We're better than that.

So why is Roger Stone on my TV again?

Donald Trump's election has touched off a wave of uncertainty and fear across the country — particularly among members of marginalized groups targeted during his campaign and those who have been singled out for harassment after his victory.

An anti-Trump protest in Seattle. Photo by Jason Redmond/Getty Images.

Since Trump's election, over 200 hate crimes have been reported across the country as of Nov. 15, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The troubling trend goes back further — the FBI's latest hate crime report shows a 67% spike in hate crimes, mostly against Muslims, from 2014 to 2015.

In December 2015, Upworthy reported the story of a young Muslim-American girl who feared being deported after watching a news report about Trump, leading a group of veterans to send her messages of support. 2015 also touched off an increase in anti-Semitism, according to an Anti-Defamation League report.

President-elect Trump's early campaign pledge to ban Muslim immigration to the United States "until we figure out what is going on" alarmed many Muslim-American leaders and citizens. The appointment of Stephen Bannon — a far-right publisher whose website has traded in anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic rhetoric — to the top strategy post in the White House, has only inflamed concerns.

Now, some protection might be coming in the form of a collaboration between two surprising groups: the Islamic Society of North America and the American Jewish Committee, which are banding together to form the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC).

The council includes representatives from the worlds of business, politics, and faith, including former Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut) and Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota), businessman Farooq Kathwari, and author and "Serial" activist Rabia Chaudry.

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (left) and Ethan Allen Interiors Chairman Farooq Kathwari, MJAC board members. Photos by Alex Wong/Getty Images (left) and Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

According to a statement from the new task force, first reported in Haaretz, the group's mission is threefold: combatting anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, celebrating the contributions of Jews and Muslims to American civic life, and pushing for expanded rights for religious and ethnic minorities.

Jewish and Muslim groups have been active on multiple fronts since the election results came in. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has rededicated itself to providing support to Muslim-Americans frightened by the outcome of the election and building bridges to other groups in a show of solidarity. Bend the Arc Jewish Action released an open letter to members of groups targeted by the president-elect during the campaign promising support.

This is not just an inspiring show of unity — it's critical right now.

Organizations like the MJAC could help make a huge difference in the coming years.

Following months of bigoted campaign rhetoric — and the troubling elevation of figures like Bannon to positions of power and influence in the White House — millions of Americans are suddenly wary that harassment and violence may soon become an uncomfortable fact of life.

Collaborations like this are a hopeful signal that regular citizens are willing to reach across ethnic, religious, and gender lines and take care of each other.

— (@)

The election is over.

How we react to what comes next will speak volumes about who we are as a country.

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"You are Norway. We are Norway."

This is Harald V, the 79-year-old King of Norway.

Photo by Lise Aserud/AFP/Getty Images.

He's done a lot in his eight decades on this Earth.

For example, Harald V competed in the Olympics in the 1960s — twice.

His devotion to Team Norway hasn't faltered since.

Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images.

He beat cancer over a decade ago.

And he's still going strong.

Photo by Daniel Sannum-Lauten/AFP/Getty Images.

In 2015, he became the first ever reigning monarch to visit Antarctica.

How many septuagenarians can say they did that?

Photo by Tore Meek/AFP/Getty Images.

But a surprising addition to his ever-growing list of big achievements was added this week after a speech he gave to guests in Oslo about equality.

Speeches from Norwegian leaders may not always make waves around the world. But Harald V's words about his country's LGBTQ community — as well as its immigrants and refugees — quickly went viral for all the right reasons.

The king boldly and beautifully pointed out that his country is at its greatest when it cares for all of its people.

"Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and boys and girls who love each other," the king declared outside his palace.

"Norwegians believe in God, Allah, everything, and nothing."

Harald V meets with Malala Yousafzai in 2014. Photo by Heiko Junge/AFP/Getty Images.

"Norwegians are also immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland, Sweden, Somalia, and Syria," he said.

"It is not always easy to say where we come from, to which nationality we belong. Home is where the heart is. That cannot always be placed within country borders."

Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images.

The king's speech, which you can watch below, is powerful at face value. But it's especially so given our current global political climate.

Anti-immigrant sentiment — particularly toward Muslims — is on the rise across many Western countries. Many have pointed to Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, the game-changing Brexit vote, and the popularity of France's far-right Marine Le Pen as proof of this disturbing reality.

Just this week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's pro-immigrant party suffered blows from anti-Muslim candidates in regional elections.

Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/Pool/Getty Images.

That's why it's not just refreshing to hear a leader speak boldly about the importance of inclusion — it's vital in batting down bigotry.

While Norway has often championed LGBTQ rights and is viewed as a progressive leader on the world stage, anti-Muslim rhetoric has been on the rise there too in recent years. The king's compassionate speech is being heralded as a means to combat that hate.

Harald V may also have had his nation's economy in mind giving this speech: Research suggests that when countries are more open to cultural diversity and prioritize inclusivity, it leads to better economic growth.

Combating hate isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do.

"You are Norway," Harald V said. "We are Norway."

"My biggest hope for Norway is that we will manage to take care of each other, that we can build this country further on trust, solidarity, and generosity."

Photo by Ian Stewart/AFP/Getty Images.

Watch Harald V's entire speech below:

On June 17, 2015, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley got an up-close-and-personal lesson in how bigotry can lead people to do the unthinkable.

A memorial outside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

Nine black men and women were murdered at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston in one of the worst hate crimes in the state's history.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

A subsequent investigation found that the alleged shooter, Dylann Roof, was an ardent white supremacist who frequented neo-Nazi websites and worshipped the Confederate flag.

The events of that day left Haley with no illusions about how dangerous Donald Trump's "divisive" rhetoric really is.

Gov. Nikki Haley. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

Since Trump began running for president in 2015, he has proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States, called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, openly demeaned women, and refused to disavow his white supremacist supporters.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Haley stressed her personal experience in her warning that words like Trump's can have terrible, real-world consequences.

"I know what that rhetoric can do. I saw it happen," the South Carolina governor said.

Haley told the AP that, as one of two leading candidates for president of the United States, the businessman has a responsibility to the country to adopt a more civil tone.

The governor's statement is an important acknowledgement from a prominent Republican that Trump is playing with fire...

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

...and not just because Trump has already openly called for violence against people who oppose him (on more than one occasion).

A Muslim woman protests Donald Trump in New York City. Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images.

He may not personally condone — or call for — racist, misogynist violence, but can he truly be sure that a troubled few among his millions of followers won't feel empowered to take matters into their own hands?

Haley's apparent misgivings about Trump's rhetoric didn't stop her from endorsing him.

And, of course, Trump supporters aren't the only group who have perpetrated mob violence against their opponents in the course of this campaign.

But the governor's blunt warning shouldn't be ignored.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

If hateful words buried in obscure corners of the internet can inspire terrible cruelty and brutality, imagine what they could do coming from the mouth of the president of the United States.