A group of gunmen beat up two young men in a barbershop. They’ve been locked in to prevent security cameras on San Francisco Street from filming police abuses, but they probably didn’t expect that this business also had a security camera. LUZ has published a video of the Socialist Council of Bilbao and has been widely disseminated on the social networks of this medium.
Among the 159 comments that the Instagram post has received, many criticize the racist attack of the Basque Government. On the contrary, it also highlights a large number of xenophobic messages in two languages. Here are three in English:
“Why did they show up there? What is the context. We need to know that.”
“Police doing their job in a conflict zone with robberies, threats, rapes, etc. On behalf of all these people, I don’t know what world you live in, those of you who write to protect these North African criminals.”
“And when a group of bad immigrants rapes a girl? Will the police be blamed instead of them, too? If there is no feminism and liberation, anti-racism is not possible! !”.
Even for those of us who don’t try to swallow the myth of the Basque oasis, such messages are surprising, replicating similar speeches of the “uncomplicated” ultra-right, including the instrumentalization of feminism. It is as comfortable as it is that fascism is a Spanish affair to think that the rapists are immigrants and not our relatives, lovers or friends.
I will not deny that it is reassuring that VOX has only one seat in the Basque Parliament and that it has no representation in the Bilbao City Council. However, this does not mean that the legitimization of far-right discourses does not affect us.
Fifteen years ago, such comments were common in the media (I know, I was a spokesperson for SOS Racism in Bizkaia at the time), but it has been a great leap to see the arrival of fascists in the institutions, both in the Basque Country South and in the North. Anonymity makes it easier to spread hate speech, and at the same time, haters increasingly need fewer lockers.
Finally, my favorite comment from that video: “What kind of emotional disconnect or hatred do you have to have in order to be able to do this or applaud?”
Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora
ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.
In the local library, I participate in an open space around technology. The other day there were two women who wanted to learn how to use the Arduino plate to create a robotics project for children, one a programmer, the other a cheerleader like me. The three of us set off. I... [+]
Yours is not ecology, yours is ideology.” You have the words of the head of the Spanish opposition, this time with the excuse of the blackout. What it means to distort the word ideology; energy transition and/or energy policy because, as the word says, it is pure politics. The... [+]
On the night of April 28, the terraces of Barcelona’s Badal Rambla were crowded; unrefrigerated beers were served, but people seemed happy. “If the end of the world has to come, let it catch us with joy,” a neighbor told me. For more than ten hours the electricity had... [+]
At the moment, and up to the head, a huge exhibition on Artificial Intelligence is on display at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, with the title: The world according to Artificial Intelligence. This exhibition presents a series of contemporary works of art, among... [+]
Energia politikek haserreak eta desadostasun sakonak sortu dituzte ekologisten artean. Ez da gauza berririk. Hemen eta atzerrian. Hemen eta orain, nabarmen. Duela bi urte, 2023ko udaberrian, gure ikerketa taldeak (ekopol.eus) hiru mahai-inguru antolatu zituen Donostian,... [+]
They hadn't seen each other for years. They didn't meet each other on the street. Looking at the situation from the outside, they seemed to be just two acquaintances. Behind them, far behind, are those intense years of early youth, where they were friends of the same gang. Where... [+]
Talentu faltaren mamua da azkenaldian ekonomiaren ikuspegi kapitalista hegemonikotik ezarri nahi diguten eta denek ontzat eman behar dugun ideia nagusietako bat. Arazo artifiziala da, eta ikuspegi oso elitistatik, gure egunerokoan ez dagoen denon arazo bihurtu nahi... [+]
After the beginning of the rehabilitation work of the Reception Center for International Protection in the Arana neighborhood of Vitoria-Gasteiz, we have seen the need to reposition ourselves publicly as occupied and concerned neighbors and to make the Basque Country a true host... [+]
A few weeks ago, the President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, reported on the need for military spending of eight hundred billion euros. This expenditure is said to be in response to a military threat to which Europe is exposed, and it has been confirmed that there... [+]
Last week, during the blackout, seeing ourselves vulnerable, we began to investigate many people in order to understand what happened: how does the infrastructure that transports electricity work? Why is it getting old? I am fascinated by the physical phenomenon of electricity... [+]
The pandemic has revealed, in all its crudeness, the consequences of the neoliberal model of care for the elderly, children and the dependent population. Now is the time to consolidate the critical discourses and community alternatives that flourished during the lockdown.”... [+]