We made ... something
A huge reason for loving Second Life as a platform is that it is possible to accomplish nearly everything you can imagine. And as the Black Life Matters issue came to life again we were a group of designers who decided we wanted to take action. This is an incredibly important issue for me, simply for recognizing that minorities, no matter which kind, is always drawing the short straw in society. It doesn't matter if it is about race, gender, sexuality. And we need to have these battles to progress things. We held a fundraiser for BLM-related causes in all of June and it was a success. We put up our designs and had 100% of the proceeds donated to the cause. We made a total of 10.818 US dollars and 89 cents. Throughout the month I received a lot of messages, mainly from minorities, sending their heartfelt thanks and thoughts. It felt weird and sad receiving these kind of messages. I wished my personal participation wasn't such a big deal. And if it is that unusual for a person like me to participate in such a cause, it is just sad. But it seems that in this little world of Second Life, my words and actions has power, and it is an uncomfortable privilege. And even more important that I use it the right way. However, yesterday a lot of things changed. I haven't been online a whole lot the past week due to more pressing RL matters. When I logged on I still had signs and information about the fundraiser up which I finally took down. And I had yet another feedback sent in from a visitor. The last one. It was from a woman calling me a racist for supporting the cause. I contacted the woman right away to ask her why she felt that way, but she wasn't interested in arguing and I was immediately blocked. After the initial shock I just got pissed off. It just became even more obvious to me that we still have a long way to go, and I'll keep using my voice for equality, diversity and inclusiveness of all mankind as long as I live.