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Description
The predominant narratives in Poland concerning minority groups and concerning Global South countries are dangerous not only because of the hate speech contained within them. A narrative is a way of perceiving reality, while the narratives that prevail today sustain the colonial order. Under the project, research would be carried out on the predominant narratives of 10 YouTubers that present their account of the world from the point of view of travel or residence in a Global South country, followed by a media campaign and awareness-raising activities. A report will be produced following the research, and based on the findings five campaigns will be created in response to material posted on YouTube (films, articles, podcasts). As a result, a postcolonial view of the world will emerge in the Polish-language areas of the Internet. The project also envisages training for 14 local activists, to prepare them to respond to harmful narratives concerning the Global South, and to organize 10 or more events in their communities and online, to promulgate the postcolonial narrative. The project also involves an open mailing course, and three-day Wikipedia editing event, in which 20 items on the project subject area will be added to the Polish version, and these will include institutional racism, the Global North and South, postcolonialism, white privilege, and concealed prejudice. Materials intended for teachers will also be produced to enable them to discuss the narratives in lessons. Webinars will be conducted under the project to disseminate the research findings and educational materials.
Summary of project results
The project concerns the problem of dominant narratives in Poland about minority groups and countries of the global South. These narratives maintain the colonial order and can be full of contempt, as they result from a residual knowledge of other groups and from prejudice. Political and media hate campaigns against refugees have created a damaging linguistic framework for describing national and ethnic minorities. The recent online discussion following the murder of George Floyd highlighted the lack of an alternative discourse in Poland. To truly understand racism, (neo)colonial structures and global interdependencies must be taken into account. However, there is little material describing the world in a post-colonial narrative without ''branding otherness'' and exoticising other groups. The prejudicial narratives are so deeply ingrained that we even find them in school textbooks.
The project included a media campaign and a series of educational activities. The starting point was a study of the dominant narratives of 10 YouTubers and YouTubers sharing stories on their channels about the world from the perspective of travelling or living in countries of the South. Based on the research, a report was produced and used to create 5 campaigns (videos, articles, podcasts) in response to the material published on YouTube. 14 local activists took part in training courses to prepare them to respond to prejudicial narratives about the global South, and these individuals then prepared various local events to disseminate the post-colonial narrative. They also prepared 3 editions of a mailing course and a 3-day Wikipedia editing event, during which the Polish-language version was supplemented with 20 pieces of content related to the project''s themes, including structural racism, postcolonialism, white privilege, and implicit bias. The project also produced materials for teachers.
Thanks to the project, a post-colonial perspective on world description has emerged on the Polish-language Internet in response to the dominant narratives in Poland about minority groups and countries of the global South. Educational activities were attended by 863 people, and all activities directly involved 1,360 people. Educators and those involved in non-formal education and human rights activism improved their competences in critically analysing existing narratives and introducing a post-colonial perspective into them.