Campaign

“There is no place for racism here”

Aiming to raise awareness and mobilize passengers of public transport, the campaign “There is no place for racism here” encourages all of us – witnesses and victims of racist incidents – to speak up, react and declare our determination to combat all forms of racism and violence, by reporting racist incidents occurring in buses and trolley buses, since the need of reporting such incidents to the competent authorities is considered a necessity so as to effectively deal with the phenomenon and take relevant measures or actions.

What is it?

• Xenophobia came from the words “stranger” and “phobia”. Consequently, xenophobia represents aversion or hatred towards what is perceived as foreign, strange or “the Other” . It is a general form of fear based on the perception of a certain group of people, coming from outside the community or nation, as adversaries to that culture or nation (Di Masso, Castrechini, Valera 2014) .
• “Racism ‘or ‘racialism’ is a form of discrimination based on race, especially the belief that one race is superior to another. Racism may be expressed individually and consciously, through explicit thoughts, feelings, or acts, or socially and unconsciously, through institutions that promote inequality between races.”
• Racist or racial incidents is an umbrella term under which the above types of racism fall. Based on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry at the British Government Home Office “racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person”. (Macpherson, 1999) . Examples of racial incidents :
  1. physical assault against a person or group because of colour, history, culture, religion, ethnicity or nationality;
  2. verbal abuse and threats i.e. name calling, online abuse, bullying, insults and racist jokes;
  3. provocative behavior i.e. bringing racist material into the public places such as means of transport, schools etc.; written or oral racist comments; hostile and threatening behaviors; hate mail, graffiti and distribution of such tracts, pictures etc.; damage to property;
  4. incitement of others to behave in a racist way;
  5. racial harassment and hate speech, or any other discrimination in public or not spaces such as workplace, means of transport;
  6. hate crimes, ethno-violence and microaggressions.
• Culture of Coexistence is about “knowing how to live together in harmony. It is an essential part of human life, and is something that comes from both the heart and the mind. It allows us to create a more empathetic and understanding society, where we can reach agreements and solve problems more easily, and move forward as one. It requires human commitment and willpower. In that, we all have an important part to play. After all, great revolutions aren’t achieved by moving mountains, but by shifting the rocks those mountains are made of.”

Why reporting is important?

The reasons why the reporting of racist incident is important are:

• To receive support, information and advice on how to seek readiness/alert for racism.
• Unreported racist incidents and crimes are not evidenced of proof and thus cannot be addressed.
• To act against the people or institutions responsible.
• To understand how often racist incidents, occur and who is experiencing racism.
• To monitor racism and make relevant authorities aware of its nature, scale and manifestations.
• To help build effective strategies for combating racism at local, national, and political level.
• To create/raise public awareness of the types of racism that exists.
• To promote equality.
• Racism is a denial of basic human rights.

Make it happen!

The campaign is implemented as part of the REVERT project co-funded by the European Union’s “Rights, Equality and Citizenship (2014-2020)” Program.

For more information visit our website or send us an email to the below address:

www.revertproject.eu

info@revertproject.eu

#REPORTit #ΑRISE #NoPlaceforRacism #StopRacism #revertproject