In the wake of an alleged racist crime wave after the Brexit vote, Twitter activists are fighting the hard battle against racism – by wearing safety pins.
The new anti-racism campaign asks people to wear a safety pin to show solidarity with victims and let everyone know you aren’t a rabid racist in disguise.
According to the founder of the campaign, who goes by Twitter handle @cheeahs, the pin “is an act of solidarity, not just opinion” and is used “to protect those being abused as a result of Brexit referendum.”
https://twitter.com/cheeahs/status/747892199984082945
https://twitter.com/cheeahs/status/747164564748394496
The campaign went viral on social media, prompting a flood of selfies (interestingly, mostly taken at home) wearing a safety pin under the #SafetyPin hashtag because, obviously, that’s how you tackle racist violence:
Want to help tackle racist violence? Just wear a #safetypin https://t.co/eSrKnTm922 pic.twitter.com/UgNIR1IL5B
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) June 29, 2016
Not everyone was optimistic about the possibility of erasing racism in society by wearing a safety pen in your jacket – and some criticised campaign for being patronising to foreign-born residents in the UK.
It is, has, they said, very little to do with challenging real racism and everything with virtue-signalling.
#safetypin initiative is the most embarrassing, bandwagon-jumping, patronising load of lentil-munching tripe since the #notmyvote nonsense
— CocoPop (@frances_frankly) June 29, 2016
A German immigrant named Maren, who’s been living in the country for over 10 years, described the campaign as “beyond stupid” and “paternalistic”.
She told Heat Street: “There is something fundamentally flawed with the campaign. It is based on the assumption that all English people harbour a racist core that is usually hidden but has been emboldened by Brexit.
“And the logic of wearing a safety pin is that, by wearing it you disassociate yourself from those who are racist. Ergo, denouncing all those who do not wear the pin as racist by default. Nobody should have to wear a pin to show that they are not a racist.”
I've been black in the UK for 45 years now.. I've never ..nor was ever offered a #safetypin can you please stop being so damned patronising.
— OLΞUΔИИΔ (@Oleuanna) June 29, 2016
She also added: “This does not fight racism as a principle that is morally wrong. It makes it all about ‘you’, the person who wears the virtue signalling pin” and “it symbolises to immigrants that they should be weary of those without a pin. It creates a general fear of those we do not know.”
The campaign also revealed a fatal flaw:
What if all the racists now start wearing a #safetypin to confuse everyone?
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 29, 2016
