With the last ten years of groing intolerance in Denmark as well as other European countries toards minorities, I hope that the EP election will result in a discussion about how to challenge voices of intolerance. One example from Denmark was the recent debate over comments made from a Danish police officer calling minority demonstrators derogatory names. After a news agency picked up video -clips form the incident, the police tried to argue all kinds of alternatives to the actual derogatory term mentioned. The Chief Police Officer in Copenhagen backed the statements suggesting thatthe term “Pearl” should not be used by police-officers. By this time it was too late and truly absurd to make the story die. In stead it went viral and Amila Bosnae (check out her great blog) started a facebook-group “I am also a Pearl!” By now the group has passed 35000 members on Facebook and still growing. First came the T-shirt mershandise and of course it was inevitable that the Pearl song had to be made as well.
Besides the strong message of social media, the story shows how bad excuses and absurd explanations cannot hide the problems with discrimintion in the Danish police and in society in general. The Pearl-case proved that discrimination, when brought to the daylight, can be confronted and help generate serious discussions. Truly the Facebook groups and viral campaigns around the Pearl-case proved that people are ready to organise and show their oppinion on this case, as the media failed.
I’m curious to hear about experiences from other EU-countries on pressing issues and social media. Do you recall examples where social media creates an impact shaking up the old media?
(7 votes, average: 2.71 out of 5)
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