Benno Peters is an aspiring influencer from Amsterdam. This week, he posted a photo of himself showing off his six pack and holding a rainbow flag to show his support for… Black Lives Matter? Not only that, but… he’s not gay? Wait… what???
“Rest In Peace George Floyd!,” Peters wrote. “It felt like my heart broke when I saw him being treated like that, no body deserves this! It should not matter what your skin looks like, where you are from, what religion you have, if you are gay, transgender, IT SHOULD NOT MATTER!”
He continued by saying “we are all the same” but that it’s “very sad for those that use Floyd as an excuse to raid and use violence.”
“I understand that people feel angry, the one thing that really makes me angry is injustice, and I felt a lot of injustice when I saw Floyd’s video,” he added. “But we should not let our anger take over because this will only devide [sic] us even more.”
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Peters concluded the post by calling on people to unite and honor Floyd and everyone else who has “lost their invaluable lives because of injustice like this!”
OK, we should start by saying that we believe Peters’ heart was in the right place, and we appreciate that he considers himself an LGBTQ ally and a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement (which, just for the record, has its own flag). Unfortunately, his post didn’t land well with, frankly, anyone.
“Typical white privilege discourse,” one commenter wrote.
“Nice message but inappropriate photo,” another person said.
“You know that Stonewall was a riot and not a protest?” a third person asked.
To which someone else responded, “He doesn’t know cos [sic] he’s clearly not possessing much in the way of intellect.”
“He doesn’t care about gay people, gay history, he’s only here to get our attention for likes,” someone else opined.
Oh, but it didn’t stop there.
“That the photo has NOTHING to do with the supporting of ‘BLM’ movement,” yet another person pointed out. “THIS IS NUTS.”
“Dude you are clueless,” someone else added.
“Somehow you have made it about yourself and that’s insensitive,” another commenter remarked. “Fair message, but the picture is cringe.”
We could go on, but we think you get the point.
After seeing the response, Peters added an update to his post, writing:
Edit: Some people that don’t know me assumed I made this about myself here but that was never my intention. I am not gay or transgender. This is about standing up against what I believe is injustice. My only intention is to support the Black Lives Matter movement!
Peters then attempted a “do over” of sorts on #BlackoutTuesday when he posted a black square to his Instagram page, along with a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote and his own message about unity and speaking out against injustice.
The second post went over slightly better than the previous day’s one; however, it still drew some criticism.
“No abs?” one person asked.
“I’m surprised it’s not a pic of your abs… in black,” another person noted.
“Delete that disgusting previous pic,” a third person remarked. “Be respectful.”
Bless his heart.
Related: Tiffany Trump quoted Helen Keller in tone deaf #BlackoutTuesday post
Chrisk
Oh please. This is Instagram. Basically D list celebrities showing off their hot half naked bodies. Like anyone’s paying attention to his mind anyways.
What’s next. Complaining about Porn stars not giving proper their respect too.
UlfRaynor
LOL, I know you said that in jest about the porn stars, but ironically, that is actually happening.
ShowMeGuy
D List ? You’re giving him too much credit. He is WAY farther into the alphabet than the letter D.
Chrisk
I gotta say though. This dude sure won the genetics lottery.
Josh447
You bet. Love the double guns.
WSnyder
Not everyone with good intentions is a Marksmen. Some people won’t be a perfect Wordsmith when trying to express themselves and others will misfire on messaging. We all could do better I think but let’s not tear down people just because they could have messaged their support a little better.
Someone once said ‘Trying is always enough’.
Black Pegasus
So are we supposed to be mad at him or nah? I get confused sometimes because each week it seems there’s a new headline that requires our faux outrage.
WSnyder
Are you a person, born to think for yourself, apply thought, experience and common sense to express your own unique identity or are you a computer waiting for a software update to sync with other computers so that you’re aligned with the master program? [this might be a Turing Test]
Kevan1
Troll on down the road.
Kevan1
If you have such problems with the site and the people posting here, then why in the hell are you still here. Ask yourself that question.
Donston
Social media is all about leeching demos, self-exploitation and self-promotion. While Instagram in particular is mostly about presenting your great life and your physical beauty in photos. It is often shameless and tacky as hell. But it’s really hard to keep getting outraged over something that is so expected and pedestrian at this point, especially hard to muster outrage over that in this current environment.
Den
Amen.
It is also kind of silly to get all outraged over a Dutch person’s (and a “fitness influencer” from whom one expects a certain level of clueless self-absorption) response to an event in the US.
He tried and was probably sincere.
JED08
Actually, Instagram has been really good since the George Floyd incident happened. Nearly every single post is someone or something referencing what happened to him.
CaptF
I think his intent and message are sincere. What have all those who have made negative comments done to show support for BLM or GLBTQ – I am betting NOTHING.
JED08
If he just used another photo to try to say what he wants about Black Lives Matter, then this photo would be fine, because it’s pride month, and he says that he supports our community, and it doesn’t matter if he’s straight or not. But, referencing BLM with this photo is problematic because it doesn’t have anything to do with black lives.
TMBisAOK
“I understand that people feel angry, the one thing that really makes me angry is injustice, and I felt a lot of injustice when I saw Floyd’s video”
Oh, did you feel injustice Mr. Straight white male? Yet you don’t understand the anger and looting? That’s because YOU don’t really feel the injustice of 400+ years of racism against you! You have no idea, especially living in a different country what black people have endured all these years. I think you have a good heart, but dude, all things are not as superficial as you are use to in your life.
Thad
Benno didn’t call anyone an ape.
He’s fine by me.
lord.krath
“Flag of the Day – Pride Flag ????
The rainbow flag is also commonly used as a general symbol of social equality and individuality. In addition to the rainbow, many other flags and symbols are used to communicate specific identities within the LGBTQ+ community. Over the next few days I will fly these flags and many of their variations.
Gilbert Baker began working on a flag to represent the LGBT community in early 1978. He dyed the fabrics himself and, with the help of volunteers, stitched together eight strips of brilliant color into a huge banner.
The design has undergone several revisions since its debut in 1978, first to remove colors then restore them based on availability of fabrics.
Baker approached the Paramount Flag Company to mass produce the flags. The fuchsia colored fabric was not readily available, but Paramount began selling a seven-striped version (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). The colors of the Pride flag represent the following:
life (red),
healing (orange),
sunlight (yellow),
nature (green),
harmony/peace (blue),
spirit (purple/violet).
On Nov. 27, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk had been assassinated at City Hall. Grief and rage galvanized San Franciscans – especially within the gay community.
The Gay Freedom Day Committee (now called San Francisco LGBTQ+ Pride Celebration Committee) quickly decided that the Rainbow Flag should be flown from the light poles along both sides of Market Street for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade. They split the colors onto two flags, flying each of the three-striped flags on alternate sides of the street. They eliminated the indigo stripe to make an even six colors, and flag production began.
That six-stripe Rainbow Flag was soon proudly flown.”
We gays have taken the PRIDE flag as our -exclusive- own, but it doesn’t mean it is only ours. I know this IG personality didn’t make the connection, but PRIDE is more than about homosexuals. It is about humanity and its wonderful diversity. This is one thing I think BLM fails to convey whether it be in messaging or method. Its why groups like ALM exploit the glaring technicalities in the BLM narrative. It all boils down to this: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I’m sure he meant well. There are definitely people out there looking to hurt people with their influence. Heck, Trump doesn’t want gays to adopt now, as an example. Why are people fussing over a shirtless dude making a PR mistake? Just ignore his comments and timing and no crime committed!
Donston
I honestly find the whole flag thing annoying and pointless nowadays. Half of the people who use it nowadays use it to show that they have some facet of “queerness” or to show some type of “queer solidarity”. On social media it’s pretty much been taken over by “straights” and people in hetero relationships or with non homo ambitions. But more than anything, these flags are starting to feel like a way for people to promote themselves or to stand out or to keep difficult and nuanced conversation at bay. Maybe I’ve just become too cynical. But none of these flags, symbols and cliched phrases mean much of anything to me any longer.
And please resist putting BLM into your “everybody hold hands” and “we’re in this together” nonsense.
Paton41
@Donston, please, if you don’t like the rainbow flag don’t publicize it on social media. The world does NOT revolve around you.
ScottOnEarth
People sure have the luxury of having so much time on their hands to allow them to complain about meaningless crap. Let people express themselves however they choose.
Donston
You’re right.
But my point was that none of this is super meaningful any longer, and a lot of this stuff is social media performance. So, complaining about someone using a flag doesn’t make much sense.
Donston
But my real issue is that that poster decided to unnecessarily put BLM into it.
Dwight
That’s an odd picture with the Pride flag. I assume it’s not at any type of pride event whatsoever as I don’t see any Pride flags anywhere in the background.
justgeo
Just another piece of SHIT spelled meat trying to self permote!
Kevan1
Sadly this is a thinly veiled attempt to get more followers. His account is nothing but shirtless photos. He is very enamored by himself. I am sure if you stroked his ego and paid a little cash he would be gay for pay. Another thinly veiled way of covering his true gay or bisexual tendencies. Unfortunately he is not the only so called influencer pulling this stunt. Instead of running articles about these fakes, they should just ignore theses glory and fame hags. I guess low hanging fruit, no pun intended, is the easiest. Nothing like a hard bodied narcissist. Good for a f_ck but not much else.