Hi! It is me, the Shadow Person from the ANTIFA plane! How is everyone doing? Yea, same here, but the tears are mostly Jäger by now. Look, I need your help. And through that help, I hope I can help you. I assume the title says it all, so for those who don’t need any more context, please proceed to share your feelings, experiences, opinions, and explanations into the luminous comment box for shouting into the abyss. But before you do so, please read the quick INFO at the end of the header. Feel free to skip the context, but do glance at the basics of this… let’s call it a project.
CONTEXT
As many of you are aware, this particular Shadow Person lives in the forests of Central Europe – a place of racism, misunderstanding and certain blindness to issues that do not affect us personally. Understandable, but not forgivable.
But with the recent events in US, I reached a tipping point. I will get to the media coverage in a bit, but first I just wanna explain the very basic reason of why am I doing this: A white person living on the other side of the globe, who never traveled to USA, can be the one advocating for BLM in our neck of woods, but at some point it can’t be done just by couple of white Czechs and Slovaks screaming at each other, because frankly, the fuck do we know about all this, right? That is where you Americados and POC can help out.
Our media coverage is a massive part of the problem. From the top of my head, here are some of the headlines of the most popular newspapers out here:
“Black lines for blue lines? Hockey is now racist too. What next? White puck, so we don’t hit the black one with sticks?” (That one is from today. EDIT: From the time of writing this thread.)
“Marxism and Communism in BLM” (I guess you can tell where this one is going, given the history of our country)
“They thought police killed him; He committed suicide; Looting started anyway”
Do I… do I need to go on? Statues? Movies and blackface? Self-defense of cops and neo-nazis? Criminal past of people murdered on the streets? We have it all.
But we fucking lack the other side of the conversation; and again, there is only so much I can personally do. Because, and I know this will come as a shock (cough cough), the BLM conversation here is held predominantly between white Slavs. That’s it. Be it comments, be it news, be it reporters and interviews… “here is what a 50yo white Czech has to say”.
Look, I refuse to give up. And as long as I am able to, I promise I will do my best. And currently, my best is to ask for your help:
Can you write some comments about BLM? Can you explain BLM to people, who are experiencing it only through the lenses of those headlines? Can you talk about your own personal experience, about your struggles, about the protests you attended, about the people you have met, about the coverage? Be angry, be kind, be sad, be radical… but be true. Because we lack true voices here… and without them, this fight will be lost.
TOPICS
Wanna help / comment, but not sure where to even start? Just share your opinion on one of the many topics, such as: History; Protests; Looting; Institutional Racism; Alt-Right; The Dingus In Chief; GOP; Marxism within BLM; Statues; Redlining; Criminality; DHS; Proud Boys; #SayTheirNames; Victims; ACAB; Gerrymandering; NBA; Slavery; All Lives Matter; Racist Names; Peaceful Protests; Abuse of MLK’s Message… there is so much you can do with couple of thoughts on any topic that I am simply not the right person to do.
Still need a bit of a creative kick? Debunk a news story. Debunk a talking point. Explain a common misconception. Quote someone. It is all up to you.
Consider this: Breonna Taylor is a name that is virtually unknown here. So there is nothing stopping you talking about her.
INFO
- Comments will be screenshoted one by one, using Snipping Tools;
- All nicknames and avatars will be censored;
- The comments will be shared PUBLICLY; both on my personal FB and to some Politics groups;
- I will be ENCOURAGING people to SHARE the post; your words might travel far, so be advised;
- ALWAYS share only what you are comfortable with; however, some background on your personas is always welcomed, if not encouraged;
- No restrictions on language used, just follow the basic guidelines of this site;
- The thread will be up for the next 3 – 4 days (depending on my laziness); take your time, edit if necessary, I will screenshot the comments only after the thread is closed;
- Please, try to keep the comments on point and around 10 – 15 lines max; the more comments we get, the bigger the threat that longer ones will be skipped by readers and I think it is best for them to hear the opinions from as many people as possible.
- All of you can share more than one comment (especially POC), but please, do not flood the thread too much.
- If you feel like adding a link to your comment for further references, do so. I will copy paste it to the details of the photo of your comment.