‘SWEDEN IN SOLIDARITY’

Aysha Jones lives a world away from the Minneapolis street where George Floyd died — more than 4,200 miles in Sweden. But she felt she had to protest.

“I became involved out of pure frustration, and the wish to see myself, my kids, my fellow black brothers and sisters around the world having a better life, being equal, being seen as who we are humans,” said Jones, who was born in Gambia.

Her experience with racism was that of a first-generation outsider — she remembers classmates throwing burnt Swedish meatballs at her, considering her worth nothing more.

Many black people who live in Sweden are recent immigrants from Africa — the nation had very few people of color until the past 50 years. Sweden ranks high on equality indexes and prides itself on liberal migration policies, but Jones says bigotry is far from vanquished.

“We have had politicians here in Sweden who normally never acknowledge the fact that racism is a structural problem; it is a pandemic just as much as covid-19,” she said. “Our politicians have the audacity normally to just push it off and say, ‘No, it doesn’t happen here; it happens over there.’ Wherever over there is.”

The nation has strict rules regarding public gatherings amid the covid-19 pandemic, so Jones helped launch digital protests.

Jones urged people to join a virtual demonstration anchored by a small group of activists and speakers in front of the U.S. embassy in Stockholm, inundating the embassy’s Facebook page with a photo of the Black Lives Matter logo and the words “Sweden in Solidarity.”

More than 6,000 people watched the live video stream and over 60,000 participated in the protest in one way or another; in the following days, thousands took to the streets in protest.

Jones, who works full-time and has three young children, is pleased Black Lives Matter protests have sparked widespread discussions online and in Swedish media, but warns words alone aren’t enough.

She wants changes in how police are recruited and trained. She wants better laws, and better efforts to ensure the laws are upheld.

“You know, with money comes power,” Jones said. “And that’s something that is being kept from black people, is something that has been kept from black people in centuries. So there is so much to touch upon.”

(AP/David Keyton) Aysha Jones stands for a portrait June 8 in Stockholm, Sweden. “We have had politicians here in Sweden who normally never acknowledge the fact that racism is a structural problem; it is a pandemic just as much as covid-19,” she says. “Our politicians have the audacity normally to just push it off and say, ‘No, it doesn’t happen here; it happens over there.’ Wherever over there is.”