Campaigning Against Hate...

We live in a society of prejudice.

The world has become a place where judgement, disapproval, hate and discrimination choke the air like smog. It fills our lungs and seeps into our skin, infecting our minds and blinding us to the consequences of our actions. We are surrounded by prejudice, and many of us are too ignorant to notice it. 

The problem is that ignorance, fear, anger and self-righteousness fester and grow into attitudes of prejudice. Even worse, these attitudes can spread like wildfire amongst certain individuals that are too afraid to have their own opinion, for fear of it being considered wrong. People become sheep, following blindly into a lifestyle that refuses to accept anything that they cannot understand. And the more people that follow, the more people follow them, and so on.

It doesn't matter if it's something trivial, such as differences in taste or style, or something more fundamental like a differing religion, race or sexuality. If something is deemed to be against the norm, it's likely that it's going to face discrimination and hate, which brings with it issues of self-fulfilling prophecy, too.

Campaigning against hate is an activity that personally, I am rather passionate about. Whether it's standing up against prejudice in the street, at home, in online communities, or even just voicing my opinions on here, I always seem compelled to get involved in making the world a more accepting, understanding, welcoming place. And luckily, I'm not the only one.

Thankfully, there are individuals, communities and organisations out there that fight against this. Peoples and places that care about breaking that mould, about changing those predispositions of prejudice. Now, I first started looking into this during my degree, when researching the methods in which PR can reduce discriminatory or stereo-typical attitudes towards minorities. And it's these movements that I wanted to talk and praise about a little bit today, just to give a little bit of hope to any people out there who, like me, wish the world was a more accepting place...

So, with that said, Let's start with the EDL.

To most people, the abbreviation of EDL would be associated to the English Defence League, who have been widely reported in the media over the past few years. The EDL is an extreme right-wing movement, claiming themselves as a ‘human-rights organisation’, that is known for their violent and racist street protests against Islam in the UK. The movement is noted for the fact its followers include a large number of members who openly describe themselves as Anti-Muslim, despite the fact its leaders insist it is simply against the rise of radical Islam.

The EDL’s prominence in the UK media is fuelled no doubt by their controversial activity and beliefs, and their many clashes with various other organisations. However, there is serious concern about the portrayal of racist attitudes and behaviour encouraging the public to assume this is normal. As the EDL grew in numbers, their popularity in the media grew too, until such a point that the media was arguably just advertising the movement to the public.

In order to counteract this, a PR campaign was implemented to detract from the media attention of the EDL and, by extension, reduce the risk of allowing the movement to become a sensation. To do this, an organisation was formed called the English Disco Lovers, whose sole intention was to reclaim the EDL acronym from The English Defence League, therefore removing the influence of the media and the racist movement from a social bombing campaign on the public. “By subverting their hatred with humour we plan to make EDL stand for equality and acceptance, instead of Islamophobia, racism and violence.” (EDL, 2014.)

The English Disco Lovers employed PR practitioners to design a campaign which will serve the purpose of reducing the damaging influence of normalisation of discriminatory attitudes, in addition to being a fun and popular voice to the public. The organisation used such PR strategies as Search Engine Optimisation, extensive social networking, a variety of charity nights and counter-demonstrations in order to convey their message.

According to their website, “Since the group's inception we have amassed over 60,000 Facebook likes, 10,000 Twitter followers and Google-bombed the search term 'EDL'” (EDL, 2014), which would suggest that not only are their tactics fun… They’re working!

And the English Disco lovers aren't the only ones. The campaign against hate and racism has also received major involvement from the football community, too. 

In April 2014, after experiencing numerous instances of racial abuse during games, Brazilian footballers Neymar Jr and Dani Alves apparently collaborated with PR firm Loducca and a number of marketing companies, in order to plan a campaign to tackle racism that would be seen across the globe.

Within weeks of the initial abuse, it began again. A fan reportedly threw a banana from the stands at the players, in racial protest. However, instead of taking offence to the racist behaviour, the attempted abuse took a rather unexpected turn, when Alves instead simply ate the banana. Although this small act may seem irrelevant, it was all part of an elaborate PR plan, sparking the beginning of the ‘Banana Selfie’ PR campaign, which could draw attention to an issue which has blighted Spanish football for years. 

Soon after the event, Neymar posted a photo of himself eating a banana in support of Alves, accompanied by the hashtag ‘#WeAreAllMonkeys’. The resulting campaign has seen waves of celebrities and athletes, as well as the public, posting photos of themselves eating bananas in support of anti-racism. Although the small act of eating a banana may seem trivial, the popularity and following of such a campaign increased awareness of anti-racist messaging and poked fun at discriminatory behaviour, to outstanding success.

Guga Ketzer, partner in agency Loducca, told a Spanish newspaper “The best way to beat prejudice is to take the sting out of the racist action so it isn’t repeated. We created #somostodosmacacos and #weareallmonkeys, with the gesture of eating a banana, and it has been turned into a movement.” (Leigh, 2014.)

Alas, maybe there is hope for us after all...

Maybe if we all commit ourselves to small acts of defiance against hate and discrimination, we can take the sting out of it, until we create a movement of mutual respect and support for each other, no matter our differences.

So I have a request for you all, fellow readers, and I'm really hoping you'll oblige me.

Next time you see, hear or experience something that you recognise as wrong or hurtful or unjust, don't ignore it. Don't be the sheep that conforms with the rest or fades into the background, because it's easier to pretend you didn't see it than it is to deal with it. Do something, no matter how small, to show that it's not okay.

It might be that you catch your friend using an offensive slur, and instead of brushing past it you call them out and tell them that's not okay. Or it might be that you notice someone in the street is feeling uncomfortable and experiencing bullying / discrimination, and instead of walking by them you stop to ask if they're okay. Or it might be as simple as eating a banana and joining the #weareallmonkeys movement.

Whatever it is, join me in campaigning against hate, and together we will make the world a slightly better place to live.

Thanks for reading, over and out...