PAPER DARTS HAS RECIEVED THE FOLLOWING COMMUNIQUE, WHICH IT REPRODUCES FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY

FUCK FIJI, FUCK MAX HELM

& FUCK THE ORGANIZERS WHO SILENCE SURVIVORS’ FURY

This is an open letter from survivors of sexual assault to the organizers & attendees of UNL’s recent protests. We wish to make one thing known: We are fucking angry about the co-optation, disempowerment, & outright defeat of the movement on this campus at the hands of activist clout chasers.

We want to act. Like us, thousands of people in this city are ready to do something. Yet, when we take to the streets, we find nothing but police: rapist cops who protect the brothers of FIJI & those cops’ opportunist “activist” cronies who pop up incessantly to stop people from displaying their collective strength. The endless, cowardly speeches calling for petitions & emails to university officials are a slap in the face to survivors.

IF IT WAS YOUR SIBLING, YOUR PARTNER, WOULD YOU BE CONTENT TO BEG FOR ACTION FROM THE IMPOTENT OLD MEN WHO RUN THIS INSTITUTION?

If you stood at the house of your rapist & had thousands of people ready to fight beside you, would you merely sit across the street & listen to speeches? No. You would do something.
Thousands have gathered at the house where people have been raped, & those crowds have been told to belittle themselves by politely asking the university to ban the frat & take down the letters. Why are we allowing ourselves to be robbed of our power? Instead of helping people act, the organizers – who no one elected – have stolen the show for themselves. While they call everyone else clout chasers & denounce people who try to do anything at all, they excruciatingly spell their names into the mic & tell us to find them on social media.

TO THESE SO-CALLED ORGANIZERS: YOU ARE THE ONLY CLOUT CHASERS WE SEE. STOP CONTROLLING THE CROWD & THE SURVIVORS WITHIN IT. WE SPEAK FOR OURSELVES.

WHAT WE WANT

  • NO MORE PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZERS. This is not about activists or their organizations. Advertising social media accounts at protests is insulting.
  • GATHER IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE WHERE RAPISTS CALL HOME & that symbolizes our oppression. Marches and assemblies on empty campus streets with police escorts do not make people in power uncomfortable or change anything.
  • STOP PEACE POLICING. People express their pain many ways. Do not tell us how to express ours or delegitimize our actions. We have heard countless calls for petitions & emails – & they haven’t done shit.
  • IF THE CROWD WANTS TO DO SOMETHING, STEP ASIDE & SHUT THE FUCK UP.
  • STOP WORKING WITH THE COPS. Police protect rapists and rapists’ property. THEY DO NOT KEEP US SAFE. If the police are escorting your march, it means your march is not doing anything to challenge the structures that protect our rapists. FUCK THAT. We do not need PERMITS or PERMISSION to protest.
  • SHUT OFF THE PA SYSTEM & let us organize ourselves. The crowd is not stupid. We can figure out how to change things without you telling us what to do.

THIS IS ABOUT SURVIVORS

It is not about organizers who bounce between protests gaining social media followers & institutional legitimacy. They need to step aside & let the people speak. At the very least, they need to stop pacifying this movement. People stop coming to protests because they want to do something, not sit on the Union steps & be commanded by opportunists. So, we ask these activists one last time: Get out of the way.

Sincerely,
Too Many Names to Count