Don’t wait on tragic events to call out racists and bigots: Ali

25 Mar, 2019

People who hold leadership roles in the country have a big responsibility to play when it comes to speaking out against racism and hate.

Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Co-ordinator, Shamima Ali says we shouldn’t only be calling out against hatred and racism during tragedy events.

She says leaders must take the lead role in calling this out every day especially those who have access to social media.

She adds hatred and racism posts and comments are published and shared regularly but no one does anything about it.

“And I’m talking about some of our MP’s, youth leaders and I’m also talking about leaders in other positions – people who have a voice that are not deterring. We have a responsibility and it’s like they’re friends with people and people are posting on their page and you see them responding to other things perhaps not directly to that but not calling out that person and that’s also encouraging these kinds of cowards.”

The FWCC Coordinator says this has been on-going for a long time especially on social media and incidents like the Christchurch massacre further intensified it.

“When we talk about racist remarks and the racial hate speech and religious hate speech – it’s coming from all sides and all communities from this country at each other. It’s not just one against the other. Every community in this country is responsible.”

She says Fijians were not known for this because everyone showed compassion and love towards each other.

Ali is calling on all Fijians while supporting the pledge by the Prime Minister to call out these racists and bigots on social media.

Source: https://www.fbcnews.com.fj/news/dont-wait-on-tragic-events-to-call-out-racists-and-bigots-ali/