New Event in Bucharest

Within project “Difficulty of being yourself”

supported by

The Romanian Humanist Association, The DiversEtica

Association and the National Council for Combating Discrimination

Friday, 11th June, 18:00

UNDERWORLD Club

Friday, 11th of June, in Club UNDERWORLD in Bucharest, Coltei Street nr. 48, very close to Rosetti Plaza, a few meters away from the intersection of Hristo Botev and Coltei, organized by the Romanian Humanist Association, DiversEtica Association and the National Council for Combating Discrimination , will take place an event as part of the “Difficulty of being yourself” project.

There will be short film projections, and some of the ones who will be speaking are NCCD representatives, the coordinator of the Black Cat Campaign – Monica David, Honorary President of DiversEtica – Diana Ureche and President of The Romanian Humanist Association – Remus Cernea.

We also invite the press and random interested people to join us on friday.

Since the number of available places is limited, we will kindly ask you to send a confirmation e-mail at the following e-mail adress: blackcatcampaign@gmail.com .

A similar event took place in Sibiu, on the 27th of May, 2010. The end goal of the project is to promote an attitude that is not discriminating anyone based on musical, lifestyle and dress code.

Main objectives of the project:

- Preventing discrimination and intolerant attitudes towards people with unconventional musical, lifestyle and dress code.

- Preventing stereotypes and prejudice;

- Knowing the most exposed groups to negative actions such as discrimination;

- Taking on a more open attitude in society towards the above mentioned people.

The general objective of the project is informing students, scholars and teachers, together with journalists and public authorities in regards to the lack of tolerance towards these people.

There are also flyers (in Romanian), made by Alexandru Toea from DiversEtica and a brochure of the project, which will be handed out at the events organized in Sibiu and Bucharest, and that was posted here.

Activities within the project

In Romania and around the globe we can find several recodings of intolerance, discrimination and violence against people who “choose to be different”, to dress “unconventionally” and listen to “unconventional” music, such as hippies, emo, punk, goth, metal, and other „different” styles of music.

For example, The Sophie Lancaster foundation started its activity in 2007, after Sophie Lancaster was brutally murdered, because of her goth clothing. The main goal of the foundation is to fight against discrimination, against hate and intolerance against people with unconventional tastes in music, clothing and lifestyle. The activity of this foundation, as well as numerous cases of violent discrimination in Romania have determined the Romanian Humanist Association to launch a series of actions on this subject. The first event was held on 10th of June 2009, in London, on a common press conference for the Romanian Humanist Association with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, about which you can read here.

Associating young people with satanic activity and other “evil” activities just because of music prefferences creates prejudice and perceptive stereotypes.

The project will promote the right to being different, it will encourage diversity, it will record cases of violence generated by similar reasons to the ones mentioned above. It will also monitor and inform the press, society and authorities regarding such cases, and make them aware that they need to be avoided. There will be processes in order to avoid labelling in the media, bringing prejudice and creating perceptive stereotypes over young, unconventional people.

The name “Black Cat” for the site www.black-cat.ro has been chosen because of known numerous associations of the animal and the “evil, demonic or witchcraft”.

Last year, on 24 of August 2009, the Romanian Humanist Association proposed the celebration of The International Day Against Intollerance, Discrimination and Violence Based on Musical Preferences, Lifestyle and Dress Code.

24 August 2007 was the day that Sophie Lancaster has passed away, and we hope that this day will be more and more known throughout the world. This is the Sophie’s story :

The Underworld Club is on Coltea Street, no. 48, close to Hristo Botev intersection.

Since the number of available places is limited, we will kindly ask you to send a confirmation e-mail at the following e-mail adress: blackcatcampaign@gmail.com

Contact:

Remus Cernea

President of the Romanian Humanist Association

www.secularhumanism.ro

www.evolutionism.ro

www.black-cat.ro

http://blog.secularhumanism.ro

asociatiaumanista@gmail.com

0727.583.594

Diana Ureche

Honorary President

DiversEtica Association

http://www.diversetica.ro/page/ro/home

diana.ureche@gmail.com

0723.137.804

Monica David

Coordinator of the Black Cat Campaign

Romanian Humanist Association

www.black-cat.ro

blackcatcampaign@gmail.com

0765.025.554

Sorry, but this post is not available in English

The 24-th of August 2009 The International Day Against Intollerance, Discrimination and Violence Based on Musical Preferences, Lifestyle and Dress Code.

În urmă cu câteva săptămâni, la Oradea, s-a înregistrat un grav abuz împotriva libertăţii de exprimare. Concertul formaţiei rock olandeze God Dethroned a fost anulat de către consilierul local Dan Octavian, membru al Partidului Naţional Liberal.
Asociaţia Umanistă Română şi Active Watch – Agenţia de Monitorizare a Presei au reacţionat faţă de încălcarea libertăţii de exprimare trimiţând o scrisoare deschisă preşedintelui PNL, dl. Crin Antonescu.
Până acum nu am primit nici un răspuns astfel că organizăm această acţiune pentru a încerca sa atragem atenţia încă o dată asupra abuzului comis la Oradea şi pentru a obţine un răspuns din partea conducerii PNL faţă de situaţia creată la Oradea.

Protestul este prima acţiune de stradă din cadrul Campaniei Black Cat. Prin această campanie demarată în parteneriat cu fundaţia britanică Sophie Lancaster Foundation şi cu METALHEAD, Black Widow şi Beauty of Pain, Asociaţia Umanistă Română va milita împotriva intoleranţei, discriminării şi violenţei asupra persoanelor care au o manieră „diferită” de a se îmbrăca şi arăta.

Campania se bucură de un real succes, în permanentă creştere. Foarte mulţi tineri se alătură ca voluntari campaniei, iar pe contul de pe hi5, deschis pe 1 august 2009, deja s-au alăturat aproape 2000 de persoane din foarte multe ţări.
Primim numeroase informaţii despre  cazuri de intoleranţă, discriminare şi violenţă vestimentară şi muzicală, iar atitudinea autorităţilor reflectă de multe ori stereotipuri de percepţie faţă de tinerii care au preferinţe muzicale „neconvenţionale”, precum diferite genuri mai noi de rock.

Îi rugăm pe cei care vor fi prezenţi la protest, inclusiv pe reprezentanţii presei, să ne trimită o confirmare a acestui lucru pe adresa blackcatcampaign@gmail.com Această adresă de e-mail este protejată de spamboţi; aveţi nevoie de activarea JavaScript-ului pentru a o vizualiza

PS 1: invităm cât mai multe persoane la protest şi îi rugăm pe participanţi să aibă asupra lor fluiere pentru că acţiunea nu va fi una derulată în linişte…

PS 2: Vă invităm să semnaţi Declaraţia de susţinere a principiilor statului secular în România!

Asociaţia Umanistă Română

18 august 2009

Contact:
Remus Cernea
Preşedinte
Asociaţia Umanista Românã
www.secularhumanism.ro
www.evolutionism.ro
www.black-cat.ro
http://blog.secularhumanism.ro
asociatiaumanista@gmail.com
0727.583.594

The Romanian Humanist Association held a press conference in London on June 10, 2009, in partnership with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. The goal of the conference was to launch the Black Cat Campaign.

Today, July 10, 2009, the Romanian Humanist Association is pleased to announce the official launching of the Black Cat Campaign (web site: www.black-cat.ro).

A large number of incidents of intolerance, violence and discrimination have been reported in Romania and throughout the world against individuals who choose to adopt an “unconventional” look, dress “differently” or manifest their preference for musical genres such as goth, rock, metal, punk, emo, hippie etc.
We chose our name (“Black Cat”) given the many preconceived ideas about this animal, preposterously associated with witchcraft or evil.
The Sophie Lancaster Foundation began its activity in 2007 after the death of Sophie Lancaster, [a young British woman] who was killed because she was dressed as a “goth.” The goal of the foundation is to fight against prejudice, hate and intolerance based on clothing or musical preference. In initiating the Black Cat Campaign, we at the Romanian Humanist Associated were inspired by the activity of this foundation and the unfortunate realization that there are many such cases in Romania as well.

Sophie Lancaster (26.11.1986 – 24.08.2007)
The Campaign’s Romanian partners are the groups Metalhead, Black Widow and Beauty of Pain.
The British Humanist Association took notice of our campaign and published an article on the topic of our London press conference.

The press conference (part one and part two):

The film that officially launched our campaign, which presents both the Sophie Lancaster case and several other Romanian incidents of violence, can be seen here:

A second film presenting Romanian cases can be seen here:

We urge all those who have had the unfortunate experience of being victims of similar discrimination, violence and intolerance to get in touch with us and tell us about it. We take privacy very seriously and will make sure that your identity remains confidential.
We are also inviting Romanian media to support us in this campaign. We urge them to reconsider publishing materials that can generate hatred and intolerance towards our youth or other “unconventional” groups whose clothing or musical preferences clash with those of the general public. For instance, publicly associating certain young people with Satanism or other such “evil” practices just because they listen to a certain kind of music is bound to generate prejudice and perpetuate negative stereotypes.
We encourage blogs and web sites to support the Black Cat campaign by displaying our advertising banner which can be found here.
We also need as many volunteers as possible for our upcoming projects.
Those who wan to get involved should write us at blackcatcampaign@gmail.com .

The Romanian Humanist Association
July 10, 2009
Contact:
Remus Cernea
President
www.secularhumanism.ro
www.evolutionism.ro
www.black-cat.ro

http://blog.secularhumanism.ro/

asociatiaumanista@gmail.com