Pink Flamingo responds to online hate over BLM mural in emotional video

CALGARY – The president and co-founder of Pink Flamingo says it’s been an “interesting 72 hours” after a project for a Black Lives Matter (BLM) mural replacing a mural downtown paused.

The proposal for a BLM mural came to council in July at the request of Councillor Evan Woolley.

Council decided the city would get four BLM murals around the city through Calgary Arts Development (CADA) and the Beltline Urban Murals Project (BUMP) with local group Pink Flamingo taking the lead.

The location for the first mural was set to be the old Calgary Urban Projects Society (CUPS) building and it would replace the current 20-year-old “Giving Wings to the Dream” mural.

After extreme backlash and a petition calling for the mural to be moved to a different location, the project was postponed until 2021.

READ MORE: Famous downtown mural will remain, says city councillor

Amidst the backlash, project leader Pink Flamingo became the target of online hate and threats. Now the group’s president and co-founder Allison has posted an emotional video to Instagram discussing the controversy over the mural.

“You can do what you think is right and have all the guidance in the world about your decisions and this will still happen to you,” Allison said in the video, coming close to tears.

“In my experience in this city, and even within the queer community, that being gaslit as a Black person is pretty commonplace. I hated that we were being called liars about the racism and hate we were receiving.”

She goes on to say she will work to make sure everyone knows the Pink Flamingo community is stronger than that.

“When it comes to the battles online, thank you so much for standing up for us… We can’t change people’s minds,” she said.

“The people that think it’s okay to be racist and violent–those aren’t our people. That’s our city, but that’s not our people… We are stronger.”

READ MORE: ‘Find another place to live’: Mayor condemns hate aimed at proposed Black Lives Matter mural

Allison says the community will push through with love.

“I am so sorry for letting you all down because my want is to lift us up,” she said. “Thank you… for letting me fix it.”

She says she looks forward to being able to share some good news about the BLM mural project.

CADA also released a statement saying while it’s heartening to see support for the Giving Wings mural, the violence toward Pink Flamingo is incredibly upsetting.

“It is greatly disappointing and alarming that there are some who have also taken this opportunity to voice their views in a way that has resulted in great harm and threats of violence being directed to Pink Flamingo leadership,” reads a statement on the CADA website.

“This is NOT the Calgary we know and we implore all citizens to not let us become known for being a city of hate and divisiveness.”

Submissions for the first of four BLM murals are still open.

 

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