# #SafetyPin #SafetyPin / Safety Pin Movement was a 2016 activist campaign urging people to wear an empty safety pin as a visible sign of solidarity with immigrants and other targets of post-Brexit harassment. Kicked off by a British Twitter user days after the EU referendum, the hashtag returned in November when Americans pinned their coats in response to Donald Trump's election, sparking one of the year's loudest debates over whether visible allyship counted as real support or empty virtue signalling. ## Origin On June 26, 2016, two days after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Twitter user @cheeahs proposed that opponents of the referendum wear an empty safety pin to show they were a safe person to sit next to on a bus or talk with on the street[1]. The idea landed against a sharp uptick in reported harassment: the National Police Chiefs' Council recorded a 57% rise in hate crime reports between the Thursday of the vote and the following Sunday compared with the same days a month earlier[1]. UK outlets picked the hashtag up within days, with Indy100 running an explainer on the pin as a solidarity marker for the country's immigrant population[2] and The Guardian tracing safety pins back to the Roman fibula while noting the punk and Versace afterlives of the design[1]. - **Platform:** Twitter (UK Brexit launch) / Twitter (US Trump-era revival) - **Creator:** @cheeahs - **Date:** 2016 ## Overview The #SafetyPin / Safety Pin Movement works as a wearable signal. An unhooked safety pin on a jacket, shirt or bag identifies the wearer as someone safe for immigrants, Muslims, people of color and other targets of post-Brexit and post-election harassment to approach on public transport or the street[1]. There is no group to join, no donation to make and no protest to attend, just an everyday fastener repurposed into a badge[2]. Backlash formed almost as fast as the campaign spread. Critics called it a low-cost gesture that let white liberals feel active without doing any real work against racism or the far right[5]. Writer Morgan Jerkins tweeted that she would rather people 'work and educate yourself and your loved ones on white supremacy' than pin their coats[8]. Days later, users on 4chan started drafting plans to wear the pins themselves alongside white nationalist imagery to poison the symbol[6]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is #SafetyPin? It's a 2016 activist campaign asking people to wear an unhooked safety pin on their clothes as a public sign that they are a safe person for immigrants and marginalized groups to approach[1]. ### Where did #SafetyPin come from? Twitter user @cheeahs launched the idea on June 26, 2016, two days after the UK's Brexit vote and the reported spike in hate crimes that followed[1]. ### What does #SafetyPin mean? The empty pin is meant to communicate solidarity with immigrants, Muslims and people of color targeted by post-Brexit and post-Trump-election harassment, without any spoken exchange required[2]. ### How do you use #SafetyPin? Supporters typically clip an ordinary safety pin, unfastened or fastened, onto a jacket, shirt or bag and post a photo to Twitter with the hashtag, as figures like Patrick Stewart did in November 2016[3]. ### Is #SafetyPin still popular? No. The hashtag peaked in the weeks after the Brexit vote and Trump's November 2016 win, then faded amid criticism that it was empty virtue signalling and reports of trolls co-opting the symbol[5][6]. ## References 1. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2016/jun/29/the-safety-pins-puncturing-post-brexit-racism]() 2. [https://www.indy100.com/article/safetypin-the-simple-way-to-show-solidarity-with-the-uks-immigrant-population--ZJzeRPz6kHW]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/safetypin-safety-pin-movement]() 4. [https://thinkprogress.org/after-brexit-a-safety-pin-becomes-a-symbol-of-solidarity-with-immigrants-8b6a152fe046]() 5. [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dear-white-people-your-safety-pins-are-embarassing_us_58278b9de4b02b1f5257a36a]() 6. [http://www.dailydot.com/irl/white-supremacists-safety-pin/]() 7. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/5cg93p/what_does_the_safety_pin_symbolize/]() 8. [https://twitter.com/MorganJerkins/status/797100899952893952]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/safetypin-safety-pin-movement Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library