A story about clowns.

Imagine a town, close to where you live, where clowns have been harassing/assaulting people but only those from a particular neighbourhood. It has been happening for a long time but only now is it beginning to come out to the wider community. Individuals have been randomly accosted by clowns while they were politely minding their own business. These attacks are random and unpredictable in nature but happen quite regularly. This has left many victims with an understandable fear of clowns as they are not able to discern if they are about to get a balloon animal or an ass kicking. This fear has spread to other members of this neighbourhood who have not experienced an attack themselves but know many who have. They now fear for their safety whenever they see a clown costume. Some members of this neighbourhood are lucky enough not to know this fear of clowns because they have not yet been personally affected by a clown attack.

Now, imagine it is time to organize the yearly parade that celebrates the struggles and successes of this particular neighbourhood. Imagine that people from the wider community, who also enjoy this parade, suggests including a mutiny of clowns. The unaffected neighbourhood members agree because “Hey, clowns are hilarious and spread so much joy!”

Imagine that affected individuals from the neighbourhood where the parade will occur and their allies are opposed to having clowns marching in the parade because the sight of the costume brings up painful memories and the threat has not yet been addressed or appropriately resolved.

In this instance, something for the wider community and those unaffected to understand is that, clowns are not an integral part of the path to the successes of this particular neighbourhood.

The next thing for the wider community and those unaffected to understand is that, in fact, the movement towards the gains and successes is largely due to the strength and tenacity inherent in the individuals who have been targeted by the clown attacks.

The wider community and those unaffected could also keep in mind that clowns are actually historically tied to the struggles of this neighbourhood and their behaviour has been a large part of what the affected individuals have been fighting against.

The members of this neighbourhood who are lucky enough not to have been harassed by a clown, because of the work of the affected members, could try to understand that advocating for clowns in “uniform” participating in the parade would undermine the safety and humanity of an entire section of the neighbourhood who would then have difficulty feeling safe, respected and included; which is, in fact, the point of the parade in the first place.

It is known that not all clowns are abusers.

It is also known that once someone suffers a trauma; the triggers can bring someone right back to the incident as if it were happening all over again. It is known that trauma resides in the body and can be passed down through the DNA from generation to generation. It is known that in order to heal from trauma one needs to know that the threat has been dealt with, that one will be believed, and that others will support and protect the individual while they heal.

If the members of the clown community wish to be a part of the parade, especially as the truth of these attacks are coming to the attention of the wider community, if they wish to be supportive and show compassion and solidarity with all members of this neighbourhood, while marching in the very neighbourhood where these oftentimes vicious attacks have occurred, they could consider participating without their uniforms or clown cars.

The wider community and those unaffected would also do well to understand that placing the safety and needs of these particular neighbourhood members over the feelings of the clowns would be a good start to begin to build trust again with the members of this particular neighbourhood.

Fun fact; the first parade of its kind was a riot! And not in the greased up drunken way you might initially imagine; an actual protest.

The wider community and those unaffected could remember this rather than getting hung up on how a sun-filled day might be ruined for the wider community because somebody’s uncle is a good clown and won’t be able to wear his squirty flower or that the Christian thing to do is “respect your elders”, or “how dare” those particular members of the neighbourhood “hold up” “my” parade.