mortierbrigade: Turns “Our people first” posters into “Our people too” posters

Extreme right parties are very active across the world right now. Times are tough and when that happens people blame “others” – the people who “take jobs”, “use up social services” and “form gangs”. Before the Belgian elections in May, extreme right party, Vlaams Belang, plastered Belgium with posters whose slogan is the emotive, Our people first.

The party’s platform is anathema to NGO, Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, which defends refugees’ rights, so after the election, agency, mortierbrigade collected all of the posters, recycled them and turned them into new ones featuring portraits of refugees with the new slogan, Our people too.

The new posters were displayed in prominent positions including the facade of Belgium’s arts centre, Beursschouwburg, in the heart of Brussels.

Eef Heylighen, spokesperson for Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, stated, “Flanders is a community in which everyone should feel good. Yet, it tells a story of exclusion that leaves no place for multiculturality. At Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, we want a warm and inclusive community, in which there is also room for newcomers. For people who are looking for a place to feel safe, and to move together towards a more open and tolerant society. In this modern Flanders, we do not say ‘our people first’ but we say, ‘our people too’.”

On the website, people can listen to podcasts from the people shown in the posters. In these, the refugees narrate their stories through intolerant tweets. Each word used to tell the story refers to a tweet with an intolerant or racist character – a way to show how imprinted with hate these stories are and to turn a negative message into a message of hope.

Listen to the podcasts.