At this point, is anyone surprised?
White male European appropriates Global South folk for clout:
it’s a story as old as the European colonial project.
What has happened in a little corner of Sustainability, Inc. in the last couple days reveals the staggering irony in the cognitive dissonance of “educated professionals” in the Global North.
Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov had many options at his disposal to learn out loud.
His first post wasn’t overtly or explicitly harmful. Yes, he chose to centre his own reflections in his learning-out-loud (can we really expect otherwise?), but he did credit our paper, and he did use images that were not taken from us, and that did not harm or misappropriate Global South or indigenous perspectives.
The second post however, was a shitshow.
Out of all the choices he could have made in 2025, he chose to not seek consent from those he would steal from, to use their perspectives, contributions and even an image of an indigenous person to centre himself and slap his branding on, and to appropriate Global South oppression and indigenous rights struggles — all for the sake of clout within Sustainability, Inc.
Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov chose badly.
And then there is the comments section.
Out of all the choices he could have made in 2025, he chose to foster spaces for other white folk to do the same.
These were inappropriate choices that crossed many of our boundaries while perpetuating many colonial harms.
Harms that were in fact already discussed within the paper Colonial Sustainability that he actually references.
Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov, you have taken up so much of our space, time and energy witnessing the racist and colonial harms you casually profess in the self-obsessed grandstanding you call “activism” — that we have had to speak up for ourselves in this piece, requiring even more space, time and energy.
White folk in the Global North rarely face any consequences for the ongoing colonial harms they cause, a mechanism that when absent allows white supremacy and racism to run rampant within modern Western civilisation’s Sustainability, Inc.
This is the reason why the POSSIBLE FUTURES Crew consider it important to actively communicate and maintain our boundaries.
We therefore have the following requests for Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov.
Firstly
Do not edit or remove the offending posts referred to in this piece, or any of the comments under them. Lock the comments sections on each one.
[Edit: The offender has chosen not to fulfil this request.]
Secondly
Issue a public apology explaining
- that you understand fully the harms you have caused by learning out loud in the manner that you had chosen to,
- how the harms you have caused continue to perpetuate coloniality,
- what other choices you could have opted for in respecting Global South perspectives,
- how you will prevent such mistakes from repeating in future,
- what accountability measures you commit to if/when you repeat such mistakes,
- and who you invite to hold you accountable.
[Edit: The offender has chosen not to fulfil this request.]
Thirdly
You have consumed our space, time and energy by crossing our boundaries and forcing us to respond. We are not a charity dedicated to educating privileged Global North folk for free. Here is your invoice, payable by 30th April 2025. We will send these funds directly on to our indigenous rights partners in West Papua.
[Edit: The offender has chosen not to fulfil this request.]
If the above three requests are met in the next seven days, we will consider the matter resolved.
[Edit: The offender has chosen not to fulfil any of our requests, and has opted instead to affirm his own coloniality.]
“Resolution” means we will edit this post to say that our requests have been met fully, and that your apology is accepted.
“Resolution” does not mean that we are on good standing.
In our commitment to decolonisation, the POSSIBLE FUTURES Crew do not tolerate such blatant and public crossing of our boundaries. You are now on our blocklist, preventing you from engaging with us or our work directly.
If you want to be taken off our blocklist, there is far more work to be done. You must repair the damage you have caused. This is a long road of demonstrating authentic remorse in order to open the possibility of building relationality and trust.
We never expect this work to be done. But we always ask that it is.
All of this could have been avoided simply by asking for consent.
Folk may seek consent from the POSSIBLE FUTURES Crew by stepping into our office.
If you would like to acknowledge and honour the learnings you have gained from us or make general contributions to support our work, please do so here.
Those who would like to appropriately engage in our knowledge, experience and approaches around decolonial sustainability may learn more about our events and workshops here.
24th April 2025 Update
Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov, you have chosen to ignore our requests and remain in white saviourship via narcissist DARVO. You have chosen to frame yourself as some sort of ethical, moral authority.
We have never permitted, and do not and will not consent, to Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov’s use or reference of our work.
We have never permitted, and do not and will not consent, to our work being published or referenced by illuminem, via their writers or otherwise.
In continuing to misuse our work, you have affirmed your coloniality.
It is not surprising that you choose to do so in the name of decolonisation. The global decolonial movement is centuries old and has been co-opted by various powerful and destructive forces of coloniality many, many times.
We have identified this pattern many times before in many people and groups, and we refer to it as “Decolonisation, Inc.” or “decolonisation lite”.
In our colonial world order, we have no power to convict you.
There is no international court for decolonisation.
We have no resources, no army of lawyers, no corporate lobbyists, no private mercenaries, no economic sanctions to stop you from continuing to commit colonial harms.
Things would be vastly different if the global decolonial movement had that kind of power.
Let this serve as a warning to all who seeks to interact with you, Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov.
To everyone who is serious about decolonisation
We invite you to block, boycott, divest, and sanction. We invite you participate in decolonial reparations — there are many ways to do so. We invite you to decolonise your mind, and to embody your learnings personally and professionally.
We invite you to learn from Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov’s mistakes. We invite you to avoid perpetuating the colonial harms that he so easily inflicts.
We ask you to challenge all of the Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskovs of the world, as we do. We ask you to build power into the global decolonial movement not through performative white saviourship, but through Right Relationship.
That is all we can do.
White folk in the Global North, please take responsibility of your own mess and deal with bad behaviour amongst your own people in a timely manner.
