In Finland, there are parties and groups whose sole aim is to defend Finnish white supremacy, a concocted lie to justify one’s racism and oppress and exclude people of color. Who are these groups and how do they operate?
Month: June 2019
Ethnonationalism, racist soundbites, and arguments to justify and promote white Finnish supremacy
In Finland, there are parties and groups whose sole aim is to defend Finnish white supremacy, a concocted lie to justify one’s racism and oppress and exclude people of color.
The Association of Finnish Culture and Identity (Suomalaisuuden liitto), responsible for whitewashing cultural diversity in Finland, and Suomen Sisu are prime examples. The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo), Finnish Criminal Police (KRP), academics, and the Council for the Mass Media (JSN), labeled Suomen Sisu a “Nazi spirited” association.
Finland’s second-biggest party in parliament, the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* is where these far-right ethnonationalist groups have found a platform and springboard to expand and normalize their ideology.
One matter that unites them ideologically is that they live in a cultural time warp where culture remains near-stagnant and is under threat by migration and minorities.
Suomen Sisu’s mission statement reads: “Finnishness cannot be redefined, it can only be maintained and developed, or it will be displaced.”
While Suomen Sisu, an association that is openly against Finns marrying and hostile to non-Finns, has caused little outrage and is a source of concern.
Whenever you talk about your group as “a tribe” you start to flirt or flirt with racism. The PS Youth, which had their funds cut this year due to a racist tweet, is a prime example.
The logo of the association gives the impression that Finnish women walked around in ethnic costumes at a time where many people could not afford proper clothing.
The PS held on Saturday its annual congress where it reelected Jussi Halla-aho as their chairperson and three vice presidents, Arja Juvonen, Riikka Purra, and Juha Eerola.
While Halla-aho and all of the vice presidents of the party have built their political careers on the anti-immigration message, its newly elected party secretary, Simo Gönroos, is a member of the ethnonationalist Suomen Sisu and the Association of Finnish Culture and Identity.
Apart from his anti-immigration stance, Grönroos is the executive director of the Suomen Perusta Foundation, whose aim is to “prove” that immigration is costly and harmful to Finland.
Grönroos, an ethnonationalist to the core, was quoted in Helsingin Sanomat by giving his views of Finnishness and Finnish identity. He stated that “the starting point is that one is born a Finn.”
Then he offers a typical Halla-aho interpretation to justify the latter claim.
“If a Finn moved to Somalia, he will not become a Somali,” he reasoned. “If a Somali moves to Finland, he will not become a Finn even if he could be a Finnish citizen.”
This is exactly the same copy-and-paste response that Halla-aho gave in a YLE interview in February. “If I would for some reason go to Somalia and become a Somali citizen would that make me a Somali,” he asked.
In the search for terms to maintain white Finnish supremacy, Halla-aho, like Grönroos, want to separate so-called “ethnic” or white Finn from Finn just like the terms English from British.
“The question who is a Finn is [an] interesting [question],” Halla-aho was quoted as saying in the YLE interview. “The problem is that in Finnish we don’t have a term that classifies who is an ethnic Finn and a Finnish citizen.”
If the above isn’t an example of white Finnish supremacy and relegating Other groups as second-class members of society living as eternal outsiders without history, nothing is.
A clarification to Halla-aho and Grönroos: None of us want to be white like you never mind hold the same racist views as you. That would be horrible. However, everyone, irrespective of their background, is an equal member of society that defines Finnishness in the way he or she wishes. Finnishness does not and never will mean being white.
In order to understand how misplaced Halla-aho’s and Grönroos’ views are, we could apply them to countries like the United States, Canada, Argentina, and others.
The result: Minorities and Other groups would be outraged because it is justifying the whitewashing of their history and white supremacist ideology.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativistnationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Päivän sitaatti (Old No. 7/Scripta-blogi 2008): Rasismi on osa suomalaista kulttuuria
Kommenti, joka kirjoitettiin Jussi Halla-ahon Scripta-blogissa syyskuussa 2008, on muistututs kuinka rasismia hysätään Suomessa.
Sama sävel valitettavissa jatkaa tänään.
Nimimerkki “Old No. 7” kirjoittaa :
“Mikäs mies tuo Enriikke Tessieeri on olevinaan? En oikein tykästynyt miehen teksteihin, tuntui vähän siltä että näppäimistöön kajotessaan Enriquella on alkanut pyryttää pahemman kerran.
Eipä sillä, varmasti Suomessa on syrjintää, ryssävihaa, sovinismia ynnämuuta, mutta mitä sitten? Eikö niitä voitaisi jo laskea suomalaiseen kulttuuriin, on niistä niin kauan valitettu. Ja kun ne olisivat virallisesti meidän kulttuuriamme, voisimme vedota silmät vetistäen tiedostaviin tahoihin että meidän kulttuuriamme on suojeltava maahanmuuttajien vastaavalta. Se luultavasti toimisi….Ai ei?”
12. syyskuuta 2008 16:53:35
Tampere offers shelter and food to Iraqi family after Red Cross intervenes
Migrant Tales wrote on Monday about an Iraqi family with two children aged 6 and 5 that were evicted from the Kemi asylum reception center and given five days room and board by the city. The family left Kemi and went to Tampere, where the city gave them room and board.
The father was desperate on Monday and feared that his family would be thrown in the street penniless after Kemi offered room and board for five days.
“I am very worried,” he was quoted as saying. “I don’t know what to do and what will happen to us.”
The story about the fate of the family attracted a lot of attention and Tweets on Twitter. The Red Cross promised to get in touch with the family, which had left Kemi for Tampere on Wednesday.
We are grateful that our efforts helped to alleviate the family’s problems for now.
A friend of the family said that the family “is ok” but could not say for how long they would get room and board.
Migrant Talesin Podcast: Keitä olemme ja mistä olemme tulleet?
Iraqi family will meet with Red Cross representatives at noon in Tampere
The Iraqi family with two children aged 6 and 5 will meet in Tampere with a representative of the Red Cross at noon. The family was evicted from the Red Cross-managed Kemi asylum reception center after the Finnish Immigration Service said their asylum process was over and had to leave the country.
The father said that he was worried if his family would get the same treatment as in Kemi.
The city of Kemi turned its back on the family by granting only 10 days of room and board in two 5-day installments.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Let’s chat with Isabela Mihalache about the Romany minority of Europe
Isabela Mihalache, who is an expert on the Roma in Europe and who works at the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Europe’s largest anti-racism NGO, speaks to Migrant Tales editor Enrique Tessieri about the situation of the Romany minority in Europe.
Iraqi asylum seeker family leave Kemi travel to Helsinki and end up in Tampere
Migrant Tales received a message from the Iraqi family in Kemi, which had only received 10 days of
The family first went to Helsinki and then to Tampere.
The message was sent Wednesday afternoon:
After making a call to him, we discovered that he went with his family to Helsinki and then to Tampere, where he is staying with some friends.
We at Migrant Tales are especially concerned about the fate of the family’s children. How is it possible that the Red Cross and the Finnish Immigration Service can throw families with children in the street?
This is shameful and unacceptable.
This is a developing story and I will report when I have more information.
Help the so-called Isis wives and their children return to Finland. Stop the politicking and Islmophobia.
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED
The ongoing debate in Finland if the so-called Isis wives and their children, who are Finnish citizens, should be given assistance and allowed to return to the country is another example of the former government’s lofty disdain of Muslims, human rights, and the rule of law.
It is shameful that a country like Finland, which stands by its laws and institutions, would put obstacles by prohibiting its own citizens and their children from returning to the country.
Section 9 of the Constitution reads:
“Finnish citizens shall not be prevented from entering Finland or deported or extradited or transferred from Finland to another country against their will.”
The reason some ministers of former Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government (2015-2019) have difficulty grasping Section 9 of the Constitution, is that politics and their prejudices against Muslims get in the way of their good judgement.
Sakari Timonen, one of Finland’s most popular bloggers, would put it in the following words: First take away one group’s rights and eventually it will be your group’s turn later.
Orpo is the same politician who was
He belonged to the same government that wanted to water down civil and human rights even of Finnish citizens. Orpo has led Kokoomus in becoming, after the populist Perussuomalaiset*, the most anti-immigration party in Finland.
We should not be discussing whether a Finnish citizen has the right to assistance and if he or she can return to the country. If a person committed crimes while in Isis, that person should face justice. In our country, everyone is innocent before proven guilty by a court of his/her peers.
Comments by ministers of the former government sound like lynch-mob leaders that want to score the maximum amount of political points.
This is how low some politicians have stooped.
(Racism Review) Trump’s policies: Killing immigrant Latino children
Posted: 25 Jun 2019 04:57 PM PDT
Tweet As I plan a beautiful summer filled with fun with my family, my heart
On June 21, 2019 the PBS News Hour reported on the horrible conditions in one of these detention centers in Clint, Texas where some of these immigrant Latino children from toddlers to teenagers were being held until yesterday when they were quickly relocated to another detention center. They lacked basic needs such as food, water, or proper sanitation. Willamette University law professor Warren Binford was interviewed by the News Hour after visiting the facility. She states:
Basically, what we saw are dirty children who are malnourished, who are being severely neglected. They are being kept in inhumane conditions. They are essentially being warehoused, as many as 300 children in a cell, with almost no adult supervision….We’re seeing a flu outbreak, and we’re also seeing a lice infestation. It is — we have children sleeping on the floor. It’s the worst conditions I have ever witnessed in several years of doing these inspections.
Under these horrific and inhumane conditions, it should come as no surprise that children are dying under our government’s care.
President Trump’s racialized immigration policy is killing immigrant Latino children. Six migrant children have died in U.S. custody between September 2018 to May 2019 for the first time in a decade. The recent origins of this situation began last April when more than 2600 undocumented children were separated from their parents at the U.S. border and locked up in detention centers that were not designed to house children under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. Child separations and detention is an example of the kind of tragic policy Bill Hong Hing argues brings shame to us as a nation and violates our constitutional rights. Hing states:
The age of hysteria over immigration in which we live leads to tragic policies that challenge us as a moral society. Policies that are unnecessarily harsh—that show a dehumanizing side of our character—are senseless. They bring shame to us as a civil society.” (2006: p. 7).
Rather than feeling shame for these appalling practices, US government lawyers have been justifying this abusive policy in the courts. Lawyers for Good Government, a nonprofit organization that formed after the election of Donald Trump, states:
The Trump administration argued in court this week that detained migrant children do not require basic hygiene products (like soap and toothbrushes) to be held in “safe and sanitary” conditions. Lawyers who recently interviewed detained children report that kids are living in “traumatic and dangerous” conditions – insufficient food and water, going weeks without bathing, kids as young as 7 years old being told to care for the babies and toddlers.
These conditions will cause more deaths in these modern-day concentration camps. This weekend alone four more children under age three at a detention center in Texas, were hospitalized with life threatening conditions.
While most of the children from the Clint, Texas facility have now been moved to another detention center since the story broke, the larger problem is the underlying policy that allows for children to continue to be locked up and separated from their families. Taking them to another detention center doesn’t solve this larger policy issue, or remove the suffering these policy create.
This Administration’s cruel policy is exactly the kind of policy the President likes. Why? Because it serves his ends and displays his bully power over the most powerless. President Trump targets the vulnerable in order to please his white base, and immigrant children from Latin America are among the most vulnerable. It is a politically calculated strategy designed to gain emotional support from an anti-immigrant, and often, racist base.
Many of the greatest problems facing the Latinos stem from the consequences of the racism we have experienced in this country because of the still dominant white racial frame. Caging and abusing innocent Latino toddlers and children could only happen after centuries of the dehumanization of Latinos, who are situated within a systematic racialization of people of color in the United States. As Feagin and Cobas argue, Latinos have been and continue to exist within a particular racial frame, as part of a white-imposed “hierarchy of racialized groups in this country” (2014: p. 48). Their analysis traces the subordination of Latinos through the white racial frame, which has resulted in discriminatory actions towards them by racist whites and in continued race-based exclusion at all levels of society. They state:
For more than a century and a half, Latino groups’ positioning on this society’s racial ladder has been a powerful determinant of their members’ racialized treatment, socioeconomic opportunities, and access to various types of social capital (2014: p. 15).
It is in this context that this appalling abuse of immigrant Latino children can take place without massive large scale civil unrest by Americans throughout the nation. While there have been and are some protests developing across the globe such as the upcoming one on July 12, 2019 by the Lights for Liberty, can we imagine the continued national uproar that would occur if these children were Swedish immigrants being locked up in cages, denied beds, adequate food, water, and sanitation resulting in some of them dying? If it were Swedish immigrant children being treated the way Latino immigrant children are then more people would be protesting in the streets. This abuse will go down in history among the worst atrocities committed by the U.S. government towards people of color along with the taking of Native American children from their families, the terror of Jim Crow, or the Japanese Internment.
Donald Trump’s framing of immigrants from Latin America immigrants as “criminals” and “rapists ” proved so successful to his election to the presidency in 2016, that we should be prepared for more of what political scientist Peter Andreas calls “performative art” as the 2020 election season intensifies. And the paint is going to continue to be the blood of immigrant children.
How can we continue to dehumanize children to the point where separating them from their families and holding them in these conditions becomes our public policy? Why aren’t the Democrats calling out how this Administration’s policies are killing children? Why aren’t we insisting Congress pass comprehensive immigration reform? Why is there not greater large scale civil unrest to this situation? Why aren’t we all calling out how President Trump’s policies are killing immigrant Latino children?
As we plan for our children’s summer of fun, we should all remember there are Latino immigrant children who are interned in modern day concentration camps–alone, scared, in metal cages, and without adequate nutrition, hygiene, or medical care. They are children, just like our children. Our government and our president are treating them WORSE than animals. There are animal cruelty laws that exist that prohibit people from leaving dogs unattended in inhumane conditions. These immigrant Latino children are receiving no such protections. The contrast between our healthy kids’ lives and the lives of these Latino immigrant children is truly heartbreaking.
To read the original blog entry here.
This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.