{"id":14997,"date":"2020-12-08T10:47:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T09:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.p-portal.net\/?p=14997"},"modified":"2021-07-15T10:46:50","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:46:50","slug":"heroes-of-the-street-against-hate-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/p-portal.net\/en\/heroes-of-the-street-against-hate-speech","title":{"rendered":"Heroes of the Street against Hate Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is old news that buildings, walls, monuments and many other places in public areas of Croatian cities are covered in offensive, hateful and chauvinistic messages. However, lately more and more individuals and initiatives have appeared who want to put a stop to this.<\/p>\n

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Davorka Peri\u0107, Photo: Marko Lukuni\u0107\/PIXSELL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOne writing is an incident; a hundred writings are the state of society\u201d, artist Tanja Dabo<\/strong> and curator Davorka Peri\u0107 <\/strong>tell us. Together they are working on the project \u201cEvil along the Way\u201d, whose initial goal was to record the state and the attitude of society towards writings in the public space containing fascist, Nazi and Ustasha symbols, messages of hate and calls to killing of those different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started this research art project a year ago, but we have both been thinking about this topic for a while now\u201d, Dabo and Peri\u0107 tell P-portal. In the first phase of the project they inquired of the relevant institutions about the legal framework which permits or prohibits these symbols and messages. \u201cUnfortunately, we did not get the information we were interested in\u201d, they say.<\/p>\n

While conducting the project, they realized that \u201cnot only is it impossible to document all the writings \u2013 something we were aware of from the beginning \u2013 but we also had to limit our activities to just mapping the locations, and even so we could not document them all\u201d. They carried out their research in three larger cities \u2013 Zagreb, Osijek and Split \u2013 and in smaller places and other micro-locations across Croatia.<\/p>\n

Dabo and Peri\u0107 have documented and processed more than 400 writings containing hate speech and symbols at around 170 locations<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Once the project is completed, their intention is to report all the writings they found by submitting the exact addresses and photographs and then request of the authorities to remove them. Having documented and processed more than 400 writings containing hate speech and symbols at around 170 locations at this moment, they have just entered that phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are interested professionally and as citizens to see what their response will be\u201d, they tell us. They also included other citizens in the project, who send them photographs and locations of the writings. In the beginning there was very little response from citizens, they say, but gradually the response grew, which encourages and motivates them to continue documenting and processing the writings even after the project is formally finished.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Jovica Drobnjak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe citizens do care, but there are many reasons that prevent them from acting, and one of them is fear. Most people who submitted information also requested to remain anonymous or said that they were afraid, meaning that we should be extremely cautious when going to the location they told us about\u201d, Dabo and Peri\u0107 explain.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew writings appear daily, and this fight cannot be won this way. Institutions should join the fight, but also all citizens who believe that this kind of content has no place in the public space, and we take this opportunity to invite them to join the fight\u201d, the researchers told us.<\/p>\n

An increasing number of recorded instances<\/h5>\n

Hate speech in the public space is also noted in the annual reports of ombudswoman Lora Vidovi\u0107<\/strong>. Although Vidovi\u0107 noted in her report for 2019 that \u201cthere has been progress in countering the rise of historical revisionism\u201d, she added that the symbols of Ustasha and Nazi ideology are still present in internet posts, graffiti, flags, clothes and other places.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Jovica Drobnjak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Serb National Council, which publishes the report \u201cHistorical revisionism, hate speech and violence against Serbs\u201d every year, notes the examples of graffiti and symbols containing hate speech and ethnic intolerance on public surfaces. According to this report, last year there were 40 such examples, the most ever, the year before that there were 33, and there were 35, 26, 14 and 8 instances in 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cFacades in Croatian cities and other populated areas are full of graffiti that glorify the Ustasha and Nazi regimes and promote hatred against Serbs\u201d, SNV stated in the report, adding that \u201cthey now increasingly appear as direct threats, i.e. as writings on private property of Serbs, such as in the example in early December when Ustasha graffiti appeared on the house of a Serb in Na\u0161ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

SNV pointed out in its report that \u201cone type of inappropriate graffiti and messages is the use of the word \u2018Serb\u2019 or \u2018Serbs\u2019 as an insult for a particular social group or profession considered an enemy for some reason, such as in \u2018Journalists \u2013 Serbs\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

No place without them<\/h5>\n

Photographer Jovica Drobnjak <\/strong>has come to similar conclusions, having documented thousands of graffiti with inappropriate content with his camera, although graffiti are not the only subject of his work and interest. Two years ago, Drobnjak had a photography exhibition titled \u201cBoje i lakovi\u201d (\u201cPaints and Varnishes\u201d) whose theme was the controversial former football manager Zdravko Mami\u0107, <\/strong>i.e. street writings about him.<\/p>\n

Most of these graffiti are clear examples of hate speech, not only towards Mami\u0107, but also towards the minorities who he is identified with in order to insult him as much as possible. The most common examples of these insults are \u201cMami\u0107, Serb\u201d, \u201cMami\u0107, Gypsy\u201d, \u201cMami\u0107, Turk\u201d, \u201cMami\u0107, fag\u201d, etc.<\/p>\n