Britons are being urged to wear a safety pin on their coat to show immigrants targeted by racist attacks that the wearer is a friendly face.
Allison, an American woman living in London, was so dismayed by the sharp increase in reported hate crimes in the UK following the decision to leave the EU that she came up with a simple idea to combat it.
Inspired by the "I'll Ride With You" campaign against Islamophobia in Sydney that followed the Lindt Cafe siege in 2014, she started a campaign asking people to wear an empty safety pin as a badge to symbolise solidarity against racism.
The idea being that anyone against the sort of nationalistic, racist violence we've been seeing could identify themselves as a "safe" ally.
I'd like to come up with something that can be made by anybody anywhere to pin on their jacket or coat to signify that they are an ally.
A safe person to sit next to on a bus, walk next to on a street, even have a conversation with.
I quite like the idea of just putting a safety pin, empty of anything else, on your coat. A literal SAFETY pin!
An immigrant herself, Allison said she hoped anyone targeted by abuse could take some comfort from the idea.
"It's simple because you don't have to go out and buy it, there's no language or political slogans involved," she told indy100.
"It's just a little signal that shows people facing hate crimes that they're not alone and their right to be in the UK is supported."
Since Allison started the campaign on Twitter, #safetypin has attracted more than 10,000 tweets, and people have been sharing their stories and photos.
Wearing a #safetypin to show solidarity with EU citizens and immigrants here in the UK. #youarewelcomehere pic.twitter.com/dQ0sukN9t5
On the 40th anniversary of punk, the #safetypin has again become a cultural symbol, albeit with a different meaning. pic.twitter.com/k3GmSrJlvq
Today, a Latvian man saw my solidarity #SafetyPin and burst into tears. "You are good person," he said. He hugged me, and we wept openly.
Allison also urged wearers to remember that if they wore a safety pin, it must be more than an empty gesture.
"If you have it on, and someone starts some racist sh*t, you better be prepared to do what you can to be a force for good," she tweeted.
"This might be shouting, or videoing for evidence, or phoning the police, or comforting someone in the aftermath - but you MUST DO SOMETHING."
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