Standing up to Harassment

[motodraconis]

Since I have been harassed, my chums have been harassed, and some have been beaten up for trying to protect others from harassment, this seemed like a good possible approach to try and protect others and hopefully dodge getting attacked. Obviously, this covers all the harassment I've had reported from friends in their own personal experience since Brexit. (Including abuse subjected to me and my family.) Racism, sexism, homophobia, disablism - all these have been experienced to a greater degree by myself and friends since the Brexit vote.



I do hope I'd have the guts to come to the support of anyone I see getting harassed. I've done so in the past, and gone to support strangers in distress. Not everyone can do this, not everyone can do this every day. Some days I feel too vulnerable, weak and scared. Stand up alone to a gang of able-bodied, drunken louts? I've always felt that sooner or later I'll get my nose punched in.

But I hope I can keep trying, can't let the fuckers win.

Credit to the original artist. And advice from her blog...

This is an illustrated guide I made as part of my co-admining work at The Middle Eastern Feminist on Facebook! It will be published there shortly.
The technique that is displayed here is a genuine one used in psychology - I forgot the name and couldn’t find it again so if you know about it, feel free to tell me!
Some could say: “Yes but you can use that technique for instances of harassment other than Islamophobic attacks!”, and my reply is: Sure! Please do so, it also works for other “types” of harassment of a lone person in a public space!!
However I’m focusing on protecting Muslims here, as they have been very specific targets lately, and as a French Middle Eastern woman, I wanted to try and do something to raise awareness on how to help when such things happen before our eyes - that way one cannot say they “didn’t know what to do”!
I’d like to insist on two things:
1) Do not, in any way, interact with the attacker. You must absolutely ignore them and focus entirely on the person being attacked!
2) Please make sure to always respect the wishes of the person you’re helping: whether they want you to leave quickly afterwards, or not! If you’re in a hurry escort them to a place where someone else can take over - call one of their friends, or one of yours, of if they want to, the police. It all depends on how they feel!

Comments

[jinty]

I have seen this and similar relatively low-impact ways to stand up abuse and harassment being circulated recently - it's the sort of thing that seems quite doable and useful.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Low-impact, as in... less likely to get punched!

[jinty]

I was thinking low-impact as in doable but yes, the other meaning too!

[lobolita.livejournal.com]

Sad times that these things are necessary. I will definitely remember this for my visits in Germany, where islamophobia is also on the rise. (A big part of my family are Muslims, so this is something I think about often)

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

The depressing thing is that the racism et al has always been here, but now people think Brexit has given them a mandate to voice their bigotry.

[lobolita.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I said the same thing to someone on FB who thought that what Trump said were "just words". Sadly, these words, when from influential politicians, enable and empower people to express their bigotry openly. It's never "just words".