Tess Aslund: The bravest woman in Sweden

We’d all like to be heroes, or at least think we might do the most extraordinarily brave, courageous things even if it puts our life in danger. Truth is though why we might think it in reality the vast majority of us wouldn’t, not least because we’re simply not heroes.

But Tess Aslund is. Out of nowhere she summoned an heroic act, not for the cameras but for her own dignity when 300 neo-Nazis marched through Borlange. a town in central Sweden, when she positioned herself in front of the marchers, and like the 1968 Olympic heroes Tommy Smith and John Carlos, raised a defiant Black fist against the Nazis.

Asked why she did it, the 42 year old Aslund responded:

It was an impulse. I was so angry, I just went out into the street,”
I was thinking: hell no, they can’t march here! I had this adrenaline. No Nazi is going to march here, it’s not okay.”

After joining a large counter-demonstration she took the train back to Stockholm and did not think about what happened until Monday evening, when the photograph spread on social media.

Whilst Tess Aslund is pleased that the picture of her actions has inspired others to confront the Neo- Nazis groups and the wretched thinking, she now fears that all this publicity might put her well-being in further danger.

We at OBV are extremely proud of Tess Aslund, the Black woman who stood up to 300 Nazi men and said ‘hell no” !

Simon Woolley