Pendemo George Floyd dengan Tato Peta Indonesia Minta Maaf di Instagram

Bisnis.com, JAKARTA - Ramai menjadi perbincangan di media sosial, foto seorang pria dengan tato peta Indonesia tertangkap kamera salah satu media di AS, The Inquirer, dalam demo solidaritas atas tewasnya George Floyd.

Dalam foto The Inquirer, Rainey A. Backues pria dengan tato Indonesia tersebut tampak melempar kaca kantor Wells Fargo di Philadelphia, AS, dalam kerusuhan antirasisme dan antipolisi pada Sabtu (30/5/2020).

Setelah foto tersebut menyebar, Backues menyampaikan permintaan maaf melalui akun Instagram miliknya @rainsfordthegreat pada Minggu (31/5/2020).

Pria yang mengaku lahir di Jawa dan telah menjadi warga naturalisasi di AS mengungkapkan dirinya menyesal melakukan tindakan tersebut.

Awalnya, dia hanya ingin berkeliling naik sepeda. Ketika melintas di pusat kota, dia terjebak dalam aksi protes.

Niatnya hanya ingin membagikan dokumentasi protes melalui Instagram story. Namun, malam hari, dia mulai merasakan kemarahan atas meninggalnya George Floyd dan atas ketidakadilan yang ditunjukkan oleh kepolisian dari kerusahaan ini.

"Bahkan hari ini, saya masih merasakan hasrat sakit hati yang disebabkan oleh ketidakadilan rasial yang sering diarahkan pada orang kulit berwarna, termasuk saya sendiri. Emosi ini sangat dalam," papar Backues dalam laman Instagram-nya.

View this post on Instagram

You might recognize me from several photos making the rounds on social media in the last several hours. If you know me personally, you will know that that what is represented there is quite unlike me. I initially began my day by going out for a daily bike ride, and I went through Center City, ending up at the protests. This helps explain why I was not covering my identity in the photos. At first, I simply wanted to document on my Instagram story what I was seeing for those who were at home. But, as the evening went on, I began to feel a combined anger from the murder of George Floyd and a feeling of energy in the face of national police injustice from the rioting welling up inside of me. Even today, I still feel the passion of hurt brought about by the racial injustice that is frequently directed towards people of color, myself included. This emotion runs deep. However, I now regret that my justified anger and impulse to not stay silent too quickly turned into movements to destroy property. Demonstrating is not the same thing as destruction. Thus, I would now like to apologize to the BLM movement as well as to the protestors who are legitimately exhibiting their disagreement with the present injustices we all have witnessed. Since one of my tattoos shows the islands of Indonesia (I am a naturalized US citizen, but I was born on the island of Java), I would also like to apologize to the Indonesian community in Philadelphia. Finally, to clarify, I must make it clear that, though I foolishly posted selfies holding sneakers up to my ear on my Instagram story, I did not loot them nor did I take any home with me. The streets were littered with clothing and shoes and I thought it would emphasize the amount of looting that was happening if I posed with them in this way. I now regret posting those photos. Once again, I apologize to all the communities that I have negatively affected and embarrassed. I am willing to take full responsibility for my actions. I have learned a great deal from this incident.

A post shared by Rainey A. Backues (@rainsfordthegreat) on May 31, 2020 at 2:53pm PDT

Selain meminta maaf dan mengutarakan penyesalan, Backues meluruskan postingan swafoto dirinya yang tengah memegang sepatu.

Dia menegaskan dirinya tidak menjarah sepatu tersebut dan tidak membawa pulang barang tersebut. Menurutnya, jalanan di pusat kota telah dipenuhi dengan pakaian dan sepatu. Dia mengira dokumentasi dirinya akan menekankan jumlah penjarahan.

"Saya sekarang menyesal memposting foto-foto itu. Sekali lagi, saya meminta maaf kepada semua komunitas yang telah terkena dampak negatif dan malu," ujar Backues.

Pernyataan maaf Backues ini mendulang komentar positif dan negatif dari sejumlah netizen. Tidak sedikit pula, netizen yang berkomentar lucu.

"Jowo ne neng ndi mas?..." ungkap @fitriarosy dan @king_sboy.