Amstelveen, January 28, 2021 – The Dam Protest against institutional racism organized by Caitlin Schaap, Naomie Pieter, Elvin Rigters, Mitchell Esajas and Jerry Afriyie has won the Issue Award 2021. The Issue Award has been presented every year since 2010 to the person or organization that managed to put a social and political issue on the agenda in a striking, effective way in the past year.
On June 1, 2020, Caitlin Schaap, Naomie Pieter, Elvin Rigters, Mitchell Esajas and Jerry Afriyie (KOZP) organized a Black Lives Matter NL protest on Dam Square against institutional racism in the Netherlands, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in America. had come.
Volgens de jury, onder leiding van Reint Jan Renes, maakt de wijze waarop de initiatiefnemers leiding gaven aan het gesprek, dat dit protest – met een opkomst van naar schatting 15.000 deelnemers – het afgelopen jaar uitgroeide tot de grootste agendasetter en issuemaker.
Renes: “The jury noticed that in addition to mass actions, the protest also led to conversations and training in social, political and administrative circles. As a result, not only has the public debate started in the Netherlands, but the issue has been translated remarkably quickly at multiple levels of society. The subject was put on the agenda in a sharp and sometimes abrasive manner. A stream of discomfort, which has been looking for a way out for some time, found a channel, with all the uncertainty that comes with a subject that so deeply affects feelings and experiences in the country. The jury therefore awards the Black Lives Matter Netherlands demonstration the Issue Award 2021.”
Caitlin Schaap, een van de organisatoren van het Damprotest is erg blij met de Issue Award: “Deze award toekennen aan Black Lives Matter in Nederland is een mooie erkenning dat er ook in private sectoren meer aandacht gegeven mag worden aan institutioneel racisme. Het structureel uitsluiten van zwarte, inheemse, mensen van kleur en vrouwen werkt averechts voor innovatie van een bedrijf en daarmee ook de ontwikkeling van de samenleving. Ondanks structurele achterstelling is er beweging en verandering in gang gezet door creativiteit, intelligentie en doorzettingsvermogen van mensen uit zwarte gemeenschappen. Het begint bij de keus die je maakt om anti-racistisch te zijn en voor innovatie en ontwikkeling te kiezen. Met de Issue Award op de schoorsteenmantel maken we die stappen graag samen in 2021.”
Nominees
The other two nominees were the petition against the (consumer) fireworks ban, an initiative of the Fireworks Manifesto, and the communication approach of Diederik Gommers (chairman of the Dutch Association for Intensive Care and head of department of the Erasmus Medical Center).
The Fireworks Manifesto was founded in 2014 by ophthalmologists Tjeerd de Faber and Jan Keunen, former nurse Marjolijn Snouck-Hurgonje, youth doctor Willemien Boland and communications advisor Maaike van Zuilen with the aim of achieving a ban on consumer fireworks by 2020. Their call developed from an urgent appeal to embrace by politics and government.
Diederik Gommers toonde tijdens de coronacrisis het vermogen om opiniemakers, burgers en autoriteiten in begrijpelijke taal de feiten onder ogen te zien over de ic-capaciteit, de maatregelen en corona. Hij ging daarbij succesvol verder dan zijn initiële taak om de overheid te adviseren. Gommers kreeg ook een grote rol bij het duiden van actualiteit en bleef impactvol de dialoog aangaan.
Jury
The professional jury of the Issue Award consists of chairman Reint Jan Renes (lecturer at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), André Manning (director of Logeion, the professional organization for communication professionals), Guido Rijnja (communication policy advisor at the Government Information Service), Lecyca Curiel (generation Z expert), Maria van der Heijden (director MVO-Nederland), Mieke Ansems (director of communication and marketing at VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland) and Rob de Lange (author and general reporter at the Financieel Dagblad).
Previous winners
Last year, the Issue Award went to Bart Kemp (Agractie Nederland) for his organization of the farmers' protest of October 2019. In 2019, Tim Hofman won the Issue Award for his initiative to petition for a broader child pardon. In addition, Arjen Lubach received an Oeuvre award with his program “Sunday with Lubach” in which Lubach highlights social issues. In 2018, educational action group PO in Actie won the award for the way in which workload and salary problems in primary education are put on the agenda, in 2017 the prize went to Hugo Borst and Carin Gaemers for the issue 'Quality of elderly care'. The Issue Award has existed since 2010.
