Spende geschützt
Dear members of the Fifty Shades of Aid community – and all within the humanitarian sector who are committed to fighting against racism and all other forms of discrimination.
This is an appeal by the admins on behalf of the whole community. For five years now, Fifty Shades been providing a place for aid workers to share experience, seek support and advice and discuss issues affecting our sector.
Over that time, the admins have done their best to support the group. Over the last two months, however, that work has gone to a new level, as we have had to defend the group and its right to speak out in the form of fighting a threatened legal action by a disgruntled former member of the group.
For obvious reasons, we can’t go into details. But in short, this former Shader took objection to some criticisms other group members made of his views. They threatened to sue the group – specifically founder Imogen Wall – for defamation on the grounds that they had been unfairly criticised causing harm to their reputation and that we as admins were responsible. They threatened to take us to court unless we published a retraction of the criticisms of their position, and apologised for the “misinterpretation”.
We refused.
We did so because it was clear to us that the criticisms Shaders had made of our would-be litigant were valid and correct – and important. There was no misinterpretation. The comments contained disgusting racist tropes and Shaders calling them out had been entirely in the right. Therefore, the principle at stake was the right of group members, in this case specifically group members of colour, to call out racist statements.
By extension, the situation also called into question the very future of the group, since a community in which members are not free to make fair comment, and in which the admins can be held liable for the comments of members, is not a viable project.
We felt it essential – indeed our responsibility as admins – to back our members and defend the group, even if it meant risking a court case.
Standing up for these principles has, however, cost us dear. The last two months have involved hours of research, evidence gathering, consultation and expert advice, and required that we hire a lawyer. The process has been extraordinarily costly in terms of time, emotional energy, and also financially.
Shaders and friends, we’ll never get back the time and the energy (and it has been extremely stressful) but with your help, we can replenish our funds.
To date – and purely to defend ourselves against this misguided attack – we have had to spend £2,500 pounds on legal representation. This has, to be frank, cleared out our entire financial resources. And we may need to spend more.
Our target for this go-fund-me campaign - £5,000 - is the amount we have spent so far on legal costs (2,500 as per the invoices provided by our lawyer) plus required taxes ** AND a fund to protect us in case there are any further developments**. Frankly, anything we can raise will help, and if we were to exceed our target, help protect us in the future.
We know these are tough times for our sector and many of you face uncertain futures. We want Fifty Shades to continue to grow, to provide the support and respite that we will all need in the months and years to come. To help us recover and move on, anything you can contribute would be most welcome.
Thank you in advance for your support
The Fifty Shades admin team
PS if you are kind enough to donate, please do not reference any details of the case in your comments and in particular do not speculate about the identity of the former group member in question. Regrettably, we will remove any comments along these lines.
** UPDATE ** we have been overwhelmed with support! Thank you SO MUCH! We have now met our target, but are keeping this open as some members still want to make donations. Once we are sure this matter is settled, we pledge to come back to the group and have a public discussion about what we should do with the additional funds. Thank you SO MUCH. ***
This is an appeal by the admins on behalf of the whole community. For five years now, Fifty Shades been providing a place for aid workers to share experience, seek support and advice and discuss issues affecting our sector.
Over that time, the admins have done their best to support the group. Over the last two months, however, that work has gone to a new level, as we have had to defend the group and its right to speak out in the form of fighting a threatened legal action by a disgruntled former member of the group.
For obvious reasons, we can’t go into details. But in short, this former Shader took objection to some criticisms other group members made of his views. They threatened to sue the group – specifically founder Imogen Wall – for defamation on the grounds that they had been unfairly criticised causing harm to their reputation and that we as admins were responsible. They threatened to take us to court unless we published a retraction of the criticisms of their position, and apologised for the “misinterpretation”.
We refused.
We did so because it was clear to us that the criticisms Shaders had made of our would-be litigant were valid and correct – and important. There was no misinterpretation. The comments contained disgusting racist tropes and Shaders calling them out had been entirely in the right. Therefore, the principle at stake was the right of group members, in this case specifically group members of colour, to call out racist statements.
By extension, the situation also called into question the very future of the group, since a community in which members are not free to make fair comment, and in which the admins can be held liable for the comments of members, is not a viable project.
We felt it essential – indeed our responsibility as admins – to back our members and defend the group, even if it meant risking a court case.
Standing up for these principles has, however, cost us dear. The last two months have involved hours of research, evidence gathering, consultation and expert advice, and required that we hire a lawyer. The process has been extraordinarily costly in terms of time, emotional energy, and also financially.
Shaders and friends, we’ll never get back the time and the energy (and it has been extremely stressful) but with your help, we can replenish our funds.
To date – and purely to defend ourselves against this misguided attack – we have had to spend £2,500 pounds on legal representation. This has, to be frank, cleared out our entire financial resources. And we may need to spend more.
Our target for this go-fund-me campaign - £5,000 - is the amount we have spent so far on legal costs (2,500 as per the invoices provided by our lawyer) plus required taxes ** AND a fund to protect us in case there are any further developments**. Frankly, anything we can raise will help, and if we were to exceed our target, help protect us in the future.
We know these are tough times for our sector and many of you face uncertain futures. We want Fifty Shades to continue to grow, to provide the support and respite that we will all need in the months and years to come. To help us recover and move on, anything you can contribute would be most welcome.
Thank you in advance for your support
The Fifty Shades admin team
PS if you are kind enough to donate, please do not reference any details of the case in your comments and in particular do not speculate about the identity of the former group member in question. Regrettably, we will remove any comments along these lines.
** UPDATE ** we have been overwhelmed with support! Thank you SO MUCH! We have now met our target, but are keeping this open as some members still want to make donations. Once we are sure this matter is settled, we pledge to come back to the group and have a public discussion about what we should do with the additional funds. Thank you SO MUCH. ***
Organisator
Imogen Wall
Organisator
England