TERRAM PACIS

Racism is sustained not only through direct discrimination, racial gaslighting, and macroaggressions, but also through the stories that society tells about racialised people. These stories can appear in news, films, media, schoolbooks, political debates, workplace prejudices, or in everyday interactions.

Talking about racism and racial trauma matters! co-funded by

Counter-stories, challenging racist narratives Racism is sustained not only through direct discrimination, racial gaslighting, and macroaggressions, but also through the stories that society tells about racialised people. These stories can appear in news, films, media, schoolbooks, political debates, workplace prejudices, or in everyday interac...

As I became older, I began to truly understand that her stories were not simply memories. They were a form of resilience and resistance. They connected me to the people and the places I had never seen, but which are still part of me.

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Storytelling, reclaiming my cultural heritage When I was younger, I did not always understand why my grandmother told the same stories again and again. At family gatherings, she would talk about the village where she grew up, the women in our family, the songs her mother sang while cooking, and the people who had found ways to survive when life...

Capoeira gave me another perspective, showed me that Black arts and cultural heritage are not only shaped by racial oppression, but by the Black experience, intelligence, resilience, resistance, movement, music, life stories, and collective strength. Over time, the Roda became more than a training space. It became a place where I could be present without having to explain myself.

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Capoeira, reclaiming Black identity and experience My first memory of Capoeira is standing at the edge of a circle, holding my mother’s hand. I could hear the berimbau before I understood what it was. There were claps, drums, voices and people moving in ways I had never seen before. Two players entered the Roda, the circle where Capoeira is played...

As an adolescent, this silence was confusing. While I felt that those comments hurt me, I did not always have the words to explain how. I wondered whether I was being too sensitive. I wondered whether I should simply ignore that and move on. When no one around you calls out racism, it becomes difficult to trust your own lived experiences. This silence only protects those who cause harm!

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Validating the role of anti-racism education and artivisme At school, we learned about many things: history, democracy, human rights. We learned that racism was wrong, but we rarely spoke about how racism is a reality that appears in the everyday interactions. When someone made a racist comment, teachers often told us to “be nice to each other." The inc...

Challenging racism also means reflecting on our everyday language. Instead of asking someone where they are “really” from, we can listen to the life story they choose to share. Belonging should not depend on a person’s skin colour, race, name, accent or family background. It should be recognised as something everyone has the right to claim.

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That question, where are you really from “I am from Austria,” I said. The question came during a conversation at work. We were talking casually about where we grew up, where our families lived and what languages we spoke at home. I expected the conversation to move on. Instead, the person smiled and asked: “Yes, but where are you rea...

Somehow, it was my fault that doctors never paused to consider my race or culture when assessing my behaviour. Somehow, it was my fault that I got excellent grades and that became the reason no one looked closer. I did it all on hard mode, without knowing that my identity, my race, my culture, and my gender were part of the reason I never got the care I needed. No one noticed the struggle because I was seen as a "strong Black woman."

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The price of being a Black woman nobody diagnosed We often realise what we missed out on when it is too late! And that is what happened to me. I recently handed my prescription for ADHD medication to a pharmacist, expecting relief. Instead, I was told that I would have to pay out of pocket for my medication because I was diagnosed after the age of....

After realising that the company was sexist, coupled with microaggressions comments about her body, it left her in shock. She had to take a 4-month medical leave after being diagnosed with severe anxiety and burnout from the constant need to put up with gendered racism.

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The hurt of constantly putting up with gendered racism Anitta, at 38 packed her bags and left her home, family, and friends in Liberia, and flew to Luxembourg in search of better opportunities in the aviation sector. She decided to pursue a master’s degree in information technology and communications and graduated at the top of her class. While gettin...

You must be thinking how this is possible, right? Well, it is! Miss B had never experienced racism in her life in any shape, way, or form. But when she arrived in Europe, she got a daily dose of the colour of her skin. No one had ever been openly racist to her back home. Not the racial slurs out loud or up in your face kind of racism.

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Miss B did not know she was Black until she got to Europe You must be thinking how this is possible, right? Well, it is! Miss B had never experienced racism in her life in any shape, way, or form. But when she arrived in Europe, she got a daily dose of the colour of her skin. No one had ever been openly racist to her back home. Not the racial slurs out lou...

When a Black woman makes a mistake, it is rarely allowed to stay hers. It becomes proof. It gets folded into every pre-judgment about all Black women, used to confirm what some people already decided before you arrived. You are not just representing yourself. You are carrying the weight of being read as evidence of the entire race.

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They decide who you are before you even speak I have spoken in parliament, in committee meetings, and advocated for human rights in front of people. But I have learned that the hardest part is often not the speech itself. It is everything that happens before my first word. By the time I reach the microphone, the space I am in has already decide...

In Europe, hospitals reflect multiculturalism, but medicine textbooks do not. Teaching medicine around a single skin colour is not a neutral default. It is a choice, and Black patients live with the consequences of it; spending years blaming themselves for something that was never their fault to begin with.

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What doctors are never trained to see in Black patients For years, I thought I was just difficult to draw blood from. Every appointment, the same ritual. One nurse, then another, sometimes a third. I looked away and braced myself. Multiple attempts, each one leaving a bruise. No one could find my vein. So, I apologised. That was just how it was for me, o...