The picture
to the left is from Nairobi Kenya and was posted on instagram by the user
asplundj. It brought up an immense amount of reactions on twitter a few days
ago. This was because people considered it as a racist act and photo. The two
white guys in the picture are from Sweden. Johan Asplund, which is to the right
in the picture, is wearing a t-shirt with the text: BEVARA NEGERBOLLEN.
Translated into English it means literally: SAVE THE NIGGER BALL. And the word
negerboll (nigger ball/negro ball) has earlier been used
as the common name for a Swedish dessert and sweet that is balls made on cacao
as one of the ingredients. These guys demonstrate through the t-shirt in the picture
that they are fighting for the right to be allowed to "continue" to
say, and name this dessert, negro/nigger balls.But why do they fight for such a thing? What does it really benefit the world if those two privileged guys are allowed (which they already are in a way) to express themselves with words that by others can be perceived as insulting, offensive and racist. Chocolate ball (chokladboll) is a more appropriate name and common in Sweden today.
In the
picture to the right two professional surfers, Taylor Knox and Conner Coffin,
are posing along with two women. The women in the picture are present without any
names. And these women do not act independent in the picture as strong and free individual
identities. The key reason for these women's presence in the image is that they
carry heavy water on their heads and that they look exotic. These women do not
get their own space for maneuver in identity by the picture. The surf company on
the other hand, that is behind the Instagram profile, and the two surfers, do
benefit. Cause on a level about identity they are somehow consuming
these two women and the surrounding environment. The company and the surfers
are strengthening their roles as free traveling nomads, while the ladies are
depicted as exotic stereotypes. To read from the guy faces there is something
humorous about the picture. But what does that humor relate to? 
The problems
with all these images are the same. They are part of a racist
structure where hierarchies come into play and organize the world into power positions and already fixed roles. These problematic structures are abundantly present
in our contemporary world and take part in how stories are being told. This is something important to break for a more equal world order. And it is about changing the history, or at least the future, since this is something that
relates all the way back to ancient colonialism.
