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!
For my fellow French-speakers: I will translate it in French and post it on my page as soon as I can 🙂
Please don’t hesitate to share this guide as it could push a lot of people to overcome bystander syndrome!!
Lots of love and stay safe!
Thank you!
I feel this is going to be very relevant in the coming years. Please, please, please watch out for each other.
tonight my heart goes the fuck out to those in the US who are afraid. those who will be impacted by racism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, etc. those who had to find out that their families would happily see them injured, those who discovered themselves among people they fear. my heart goes the fuck out. i am sorry thats all i have to offer
a majority of americans do not support the views of trump. rightfully, we should never have to say President Trump. but that’s not how it works. it’s all about how the votes go, and if liberal votes are split, we will lose (source)
I WANT TO MAKE THIS CLEAR:
538 VOTES DECIDED THE 2000 ELECTION.
NOT FIVE THOUSAND. NOT FIFTY THOUSAND.
FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY EIGHT VOTES.
NO VOTE IS A THROW AWAY VOTE.
PROTEST VOTES, AND HOW MANY THERE ARE, WILL DECIDE IF TRUMP WINS OR IF CLINTON WINS.
EVERY. VOTE. COUNTS.
OHMYGOD, that’s what fivethirtyeight.com’s name significance is. Wow.
if you’re in america and you’re eligible to vote…… i’m begging you to vote for hillary like literally begging
I wouldn’t vote for either of them. They’re both keeping secrets and will both turn this country to absolute shit.
anyway vote for hillary instead of throwing your vote away
This is what gets me. The fact that for 90 minutes Hillary clearly showed how prepared she is to be president. How capable, knowledgeable, and cool-headed she is. She put forth actually solutions to problems that are inclusive and hopeful.
Donald Trump stood there for 90 minutes and yelled belligerently into his microphone. Twenty minutes into the debate his sentences were incoherent and, as he is so skilled at doing, he managed to never actually answer the questions thrown his way, unless he was called out on it and given even more time to actually respond with something relevant to the topic at hand.
And yet here we are. The debate is over, Hillary has clearly won and shown the American people want an actual President should look like, and people still aren’t convinced. Hillary has been at this job for THIRTY YEARS. And yet, she still suffers from this ‘likability’ thing thanks to the GOP propaganda that has been smearing her name since the beginning of her career.
“But she’s a liar!” “She’s hiding something!” “She’s keeping secrets!”
Bullshit. Hillary Clinton is a high-ranking government official. Of fucking course she’s keeping secrets, that’s her damn job. If we knew ever last thing that ever went down in the State Department, we’d all shit ourselves. Those are just your own shitty excuses for not voting for her because she wasn’t your first option in the primaries. What, exactly, do people think will happen if Hillary becomes President? What would be the terrible awful outcome of that? I have never actually heard, specifically, what she would do that would ruin our country beyond repair. We all know what Trump would do. It’s his fucking platform, he’s not trying to hide anything there. But no one can actually lay out specifics on what makes Hillary so scary, other than the fact that she’s overly qualified for the job she’s being interviewed for.
If you really feel so strongly about it, fine. Vote third party. But please, do yourself a favor. Actually fucking look at what Hillary and Trump are proposing for this nation. Really try to understand what exactly will happen if one of them gets elected. And then truly think about whether or not you could stomach looking the next generation in the eye if your third party vote gets Donald Trump elected President of the United States.
“This election draws into relief how women are penalized for not being perfect while men are rewarded for not being terrible.”
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