Online activist initiatives against hate
by Alèxia Rué, Universitat de Barcelona
One of the recurrent topics that have come up during the project’s fieldwork is the need for future actions to recognise and help disseminate the initiatives that already exist and fight against online (and offline) hate and racism, many of which are led by young activists who have themselves experienced online and offline hate. So we would like to take this opportunity to highlight some initiatives in Spain that have come up during research and that we feel are especially interesting for their different approaches to combatting hate. This is only a small selection of diverse initiatives and it is far from being comprehensive of all the relevant and interesting actions that are being taken:
Desirée Bele-Lobedde’s beauty blog and Twitter account: Desirée Bela-Lobedde refers to herself as an ‘aesthetic activist’, she has a blog on beauty for black women which she also uses to bring down stereotypes and denounce discrimination. She is also very active on Twitter and YouTube.
Ramia’s Channel: this young activist is working from her popular YouTube channel to challenge negative perceptions about the Muslim population in Spain, especially among young people. She also actively collaborates, among other initiatives, with the Barcelona City Council’s initiative XarxaAntirumors against the spread of rumours and fake news.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc22KYDHrLz5BDZLYsNS3Sg
Apátrida on Instagram: Apátrida is visual project by a young Muslim influencer who challenges stereotypes about Muslim women combining headscarves, sneakers and daring locations such as the headquarters of an extreme right group.
https://www.instagram.com/_apatrida_/
Afroféminas: Afroféminas is an online publication made by and for afro and afrodescendant women in Spanish-speaking countries. They publish interviews, opinion articles and essays, while they are also very active on Twitter and Instagram calling out racism and showing the realities of afro and afrodescendant women in Spanish-speaking countries.
#RelatsReals: aimed at raising awareness on the daily realities of racial discrimination among sectors of the population that are already receptive to social issues, this project novelises real stories of discrimination that the organisation SOS Racismo has gathered over the years, which are then published on the media outlet LaDirecta.
http://www.sosracisme.org/tag/relats-reals
Putochinomaricon: Chenta Tsai is an architect, designer, activist, multimedia artist and musician who draws on his experiences of xenophobic, racist and LGBTphobic discrimination to write harsh and sticky songs that are as good to dance to as they are to call out bigots.
https://www.instagram.com/putochinomaricon/