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Last Saturday, Jennifer Sjösten, 26, received a message on Tinder from a boy she met. But the content did not lead to a date, but to a report for Tinder.
The text said “If slavery still existed, I would buy you.”
“I was very angry and I thought it was tragic that he thought it was okay to write to someone,” Jennifer says.
He took a screenshot of the message and posted the image on social media. On Twitter, he wrote: “Racism still exists everywhere, all the time and to the highest degree. This is what a guy wrote to me on Tinder. I panic about privileged society.”
READ MORE: This is how racism contributes to black mental illness
Glad you raised the issue
The posts soon went viral, and the reactions were not long in coming. Most have been supportive, says Jennifer Sjösten, but she has also received racist and derogatory comments.
– Someone thought I would move to Africa again, says Jennifer (who is adopted from Cape Verde).
One person looked at a photo of Jennifer sunbathing and wondered why: she is already a brunette. Someone else thought I shouldn’t take it because “it’s not even black.”
Despite the comments, Jennifer Sjösten is happy to have raised the issue.
– I have not taken it myself, but on the other hand I am concerned about humanity, if you think you can treat people like that.
Some people think this was a compliment. How do you look at it?
– I think it’s a lack of understanding. You do not know how the recipient perceives this, and you who write, your word does not weigh more. The victim’s words weigh more.
READ MORE: Duo from hit podcast “Raseriet” educate Sweden
Overloaded Instagram account
The response Jennifer received on Tinder originally came from a joke on a Tiktok video. Social media also expresses the view that everything is just “fun stuff.” One tweeter refers to an American girl who received the same line and joked about it.
A Tiktok video doesn’t justify the behavior, Jennifer says, noting that no one knows what the American girl really felt.
– I hope you have seen the seriousness of this, but decided to joke because women want to be well.
Now Jennifer Sjösten has had to disable social media ads on her phone. For a while, she did not access her Instagram account because it was overloaded.
– I have tried to thank everyone who shared. When I did the publication, I did not know that it would be so popular, but I thought that “this is not how it is written”.
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