[ Bakgrunn: Anmelder Atle Antonsen etter ubehagelige opplevelser ute på byen ]
– It is a poor excuse, he has not understood what he has done or what the meaning of racism is.
This is what the head of the Anti-Racist Centre, Hatem Ben Mansour, told Dagsavisen. In a longer Facebook post, poet, writer and social debater Sumaya Jirde Ali describes an evening when she and her friend were out on the town to enjoy themselves. An evening that was anything but pleasant, and which ended with her reporting Atle Antonsen after a long period of reflection.
In the Facebook post, she describes what she experiences as aggressive and racist behavior from Antonsen. “SHUT THE FUCK UP” and “you’re too dark-skinned to be here” are among what Antonsen is said to have said to Ali.
– He has literally said “you are too dark-skinned to be here”. How anyone can think it’s an attempt to be funny is just shocking. He should understand it himself, continues Mansour.
Comedian Antonsen apologizes in a post on Facebook on Tuesday. He calls the evening a “disaster” and says Sumaya Jirde Ali met “a drunken comedian who played incredibly stupid things”.
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Shocked
Ben Mansour says that the Antiracist Center was shocked when they read Ali’s Facebook post earlier on Tuesday.
– We see many racist incidents, and really there is not much that surprises us anymore, but this one shocked us. It’s about the grossness of it, and who it’s coming from. Atle Antonsen is a man who has been in the public eye for several years. This means that it can have major consequences if it is not dealt with, because people can perceive it as being accepted to behave like that, he says and adds:
– In addition, we know, and he should also know, that Sumaya Jirde Ali has taken a break from the public in the past, precisely because of severe harassment and incitement.
Ben Mansour believes that the words “you are too dark-skinned to be here” should, if you look at the legal practice, be punishable as hate speech.
– It makes it all the more gross that this was done in the public space, in a context that is more than just the words that were said.
– What kind of effect can it have if Ali tells the public this?
– It has a debate effect, but I think the most important effect is that others react to what she writes, and not least that other white, middle-aged men in positions of power react. At the bar that night several people could have reacted, but no one did until a lady came and pulled him away. The fact that people don’t react, but downplay it and excuse it with alcohol, or “a misguided attempt at humour”, means that you don’t deal with the attitudes that really lie behind this, Ben Mansour answers and continues:
– We have to recognize that white men, and men in general, have a number of privileges that they take for granted.
[ Atle Antonsen på Facebook etter anmeldelsen: – Unnskyld ]
Pillows under the arms
It has not been long since another man in the entertainment industry was reported for hateful and racist speech. Bernt Hulsker was recently sentenced to 18 days in prison for hate speech against a doorman.
Antonsen has apologized in a Facebook post. The comment section shows that several people praise him for “taking responsibility for his actions”, and several people write things like “who hasn’t done something stupid when drunk”.
– There are other people who prevent those who might want to learn from their mistakes in the picture here too. Many men get pillows sewn under their arms, says Ben Mansour.
Sumaya Jirde Ali has received incitement both in the comment section and on messages after she published the post about the incident with Atle Antonsen.
– It’s not surprising that the heat comes, it happens every time someone tries to speak out. And that is why many people get away with that type of incitement, for ordinary people who do not have a large network, it is, so to speak, prohibitive to have to come forward with incidents like this. Sumaya has stood in similar storms before, and perhaps has an ability to stand in it to a certain extent, says Ben Mansour.
[ AUF-lederen drukner i netthets etter Giske-oppgjør ]
