Photo by Justus Blümer via Flickr [1]. CC BY 2.0
People from around the world, including Germany, are posting photos of themselves with bananas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to protest racism following an incident during a football match in Spain in which someone in the crowd threw a banana at FC Barcelona player Dani Alves.
The Brazilian footballer responded by picking up the fruit and eating it. The banana thrower was banned from the stadium for life [2].
This heralded an international wave of solidarity and a new selfie trend using the hashtags #WeAreAllMonkeys [3], #SayNoToRacism [4] and #BananaSelfie [5]. It began in the world of sport, as here in a photo of young players for the football club 1. FC Köln with player Mišo Brečko:
Anti-Rassismus Workshop des #effzeh [6] KidsClub mit Miso #Brecko [7] #weareallmonkeys [8] #SayNoToRacism [9] pic.twitter.com/m3wjQ7r4df [10]
— 1. FC Köln (@fckoeln) 30. April 2014 [11]
Anti-racism workshop at #effzeh Kids Club with Miso #Brecko. #Weareallmonkeys #SayNoToRacism
The trend then took off in the world of politics, seen here in a photo of politician Kai Gehring and his fellow party members from the 90/Die Grünen coalition, who at the same time called for protests against right-wing extremism on May Day [12] in Germany:
love bananas, hate #rasism [13] – heute Flagge zeigen für ein vereintes weltoffenes Europa! #1MaiNazifrei [14] #bananaselfies [15] pic.twitter.com/YrhHJysB5z [16]
— Kai Gehring (@KaiGehring) 1. Mai 2014 [17]
love bananas, hate #racism – fly your flags today for a united, open-minded Europe!
Protesters also took up the selfie trend during May Day anti-racism protests:
Wir sind in #Altenessen [18]. #weareallmonkeys [8] #spd [19] #essen [20] pic.twitter.com/yu8yo2diPn [21]
— SPD Essen (@SPD_Essen) 1. Mai 2014 [22]
We're in #Altenessen. #weareallmonkeys #spd #essen