The German Young Naturefriends will launch an amazing campaign against discrimination, which is just waiting for you to join!
Therefore they are searching for people, who write a short text with the length of about half of an A4 sheet and making a series of photos in a photo booth. A detailed description in English can be found below.
The closing date is the 18th March 2017, so if you still have time until then feel, free to participate in this campaign, if you feel like it.

To make it short: The social-media campaign is against group-focused enmity, which calls for self-reflection, critical thinking and the development of empathy. This is happening in a time, where more and more people in Germany are degrading and excluding humans and specific groups of people in an unreserved, loud and discourse-dominating way.

A bit more detailed: The last year was not uplifting in Germany. Populist parties established more than we all wanted to anticipate. In other countries, the right is prevailing, too. In the same time, the voices spreading homophobic, sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, ableist and other inhuman thoughts are getting louder. Especially in the social media networks, barely anyone is mincing its voice and it’s sometimes frightening what can be said without being punished.

The advisory council “Democracy and Participation” from the German Young Naturefriends wants face against that!

We would like to ask as many Naturefriends to take some time thinking when and where they discriminated/hurt/excluded other humans or witnessed such an incident (without intervening).That experience should be noted down on a half to maximum one A4-sheet. The story should be published together with a classic photo series out of 4 pictures made in a photo booth. If you want you can hold up signs on with you apologize for what you did (no full real names). But the pictures can also be taken without such a message. The end of your text should include how you now think about that incident. It’s important that your face is visible as the campaign is named “Show Face”.

The length of the campaign and how many faces are shown each week depends on how many people are participating. Maybe multiple faces are published at the time. The campaign will only be started if the are at least 15 people support it with their photos. Of course we, the advisory council “Democracy and Participation” will also take part. Please send us your photos and your story until the 18th of March 2017.

Background: The development of prejudices is a normal component in the socializing and learning process and prejudices also have a good function helping us to simplify the world and allows us to tackle our daily life easier. During our early infantile socialization, we learn a lot of prepossessions and prejudices about other human groups. Each generation commits their stereotypes and prejudices to the next generation and the children often unconsciously adopt it. This is a very influential process, which is therefore so hard to break. We are also part of this society. We are also influenced by pictures which were passed to us. The behavior and/or look of another person can generate negative feelings within us, which could provoke stereotypical mindsets. If we recognize that clichéd conceptions are the base for our response to the appearance of others, it is important that we admit that we have them. We have to confess, that we still have a long way to go and that denying this keeps the old system of suppression running. We must take over our responsibility for the present age without blaming us for the past. It isn’t our fault, that we had been drummed with certain prejudices in our childhood. We are not responsible for our past, but for what we have learned from it. Now, as we are aware of it, it is up to us to take over our responsibility for our thinking and acting.

We would be very pleased if you would participate. In this case or if you have questions about the campaign please don’t hesitate to contact Lukas from the German Young Naturefriends (lukas@naturfreundejugend.de). Check out the page of the campaign here.