Shirlene Green Newball is an Afro-Nicaraguan activist who moved to Finland 13 years ago and lives today in the capital Helsinki. Shirlene tells us in the interview about her life in Finland and those of Afro-Nicaraguans and other minorities. Is Finland a good country to live in if you are a black woman from the Caribbean region?
Shirlene Green Newball es una activista afro-nicaragüense que se mudó a Finlandia hace 13 años y actualmente vive en en la capital, Helsinki. Shirlene nos cuenta en la entrevista sobre su vida en Finlandia y de la situación de las afro-nicaragüenses y otras minorías. ¿Es Finlandia un buen país para emigrar si eres negra y mujer?
The cartoon was originally posted on May 26, 2012.
Ever since he 2011 parliamentary elections, when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party won 39 seats from 5 seats previously, we have never trusted this party even though the Finnish media gave it the benefit of the doubt.
Not only did the Finnish media give the PS the benefit of the doubt, but too many were fascinated by its racism and Timo Soini’s populism.
After three parliamentary elections, it is now clearer than ever before that the PS is not only an Islamophobic and populist party but far-right as well.
Migrant Tales was right to suspect and be critical of this party: The PS is not only a threat to our growing culturally diverse communities but to the whole country. Supporting such a party is like shooting our democracy and values in the head.
* 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 nativist nationalism 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.
Only MP Ozan Yanar, Jani Toivola and for about two years Nasima Razmyar, or 1.5% of all 200 MPs during the 2015-2019 term, were the only visible minorities in parliament. In the present 2019-2021 term, matters aren’t much better: Bella Forsgrén and Hussein al-Taee, who is on sick leave, are the only MPs who are visible minorities.
While there are many reasons why former Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government was one of the most hostile towards visible migrants, especially Muslim asylum seekers, the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* played a crucial role in the government’s tightening of immigration policy and bolstering Finland’s hostile environment.
A group picture of Finland’s MPs taken in 2017. Can you spot a minority? Source: Eduskunta.
With the last parliamentary election in April, new hope arose when the Social Democrats, Green League, Center Party, Left Alliance, and Swedish People’s Party formed a new government.
Even if there is hope that this government will be less xenophobic than the previous one, all of the ministers in Prime Minister Rinne’s government are white. One positive matter, however, is that 11 of the 19 ministers are women.
Can you spot a minister that isn’t white in Prime Minister Antti Rinne’s government? Source: Yle.
So what do these two pictures tell us?
They clearly state that there is too little if no minority representation in parliament as MPs and in the government as ministers.
Am I hopeful that matters will change for the better during Prime Minister Rinne’s government?
Experience has taught me to see deeds first and then offer an opinion later.
* 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 nativist nationalism 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.
Migrant Tales insight: This very sad story caught our attention. We are sorry to hear this and hope the police catch the perpetrators.
White Finnish supremacy is not only limited to the Perussuomalaiset (PS).* It is found in other mainstream Finnish parties as well.
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED
This is how a far-right white supremacist like Jussi Halla-aho attempt, like in a Yle interview in February, argue why people of color and other minorities can never be Finns: “If I would for some reason go to Somalia and become a Somali citizen, would that make me a Somali?”
Even if the host Kirsi Heikel stood silent while the head of the PS made the statement, the example is another hallow defense of how Halla-aho attempts to exclude migrants and minorities in Finnish society.
The answer by Halla-aho is what I call a yes-but-no response. It may sound at first logical but you soon notice that it is full of holes. It is like an apple that is shiny from the outside but rotten from the core.
Many people who aren’t white don’t want to be white like Halla-aho, PS Vice President Riikka Purra never mind party secretary Simo Grönroos. For me, that would be horrible. What we want, instead, is to be treated with respect, enjoy equal rights and stop hearing near-constantly toxic othering so common to Finland’s hostile environment.
Take a good look at Halla-aho, Purra, Grönroos and others like them and ask yourself the following question: Do I want to look and be like them?
Never!
Certainly, it would also be difficult, if not impossible for some, to change their skin color and ethnic background to appear as white as them.
The surge of racism, hate speech and crime in Finland during this decade is so dire that some children of color learn at an early age to feel inferior and ashamed of their dark skins. Some, even try hiding from the sun because it tans their skins.
What kind of a country and society do we live in where children, yes children, don’t feel at ease with who they are?
In an attempt to keep Finland an imaginary 99% white and Christian country in the future, Halla-aho and his trusty right-hand woman, Purra, turn to the supernatural to define who is a Finn. According to them, you can tell who is a Finn by intuition.
Both Halla-aho and Purra don’t tell you if that Finn they claim to see by intuition is a black person, a person of color or a visible migrant and minority.
Both of them are so white-Finn centric that they most likely mean a white person.
They call it intuition, I call it bullshit.
Parties like the PS, with the help of other mainstream parties, are trying to normalize racism. We must do everything in our power to stop this type of social ill from spreading more.
What makes the PS a far-right Islamophobic party that is a threat to this country?
* 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 nativist nationalism 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.
After Helsingin Sanomat Monday published a story where oddly termed four progressive US congresswomen of color as “people of migrant origin,” state broadcaster Yle used the same term on Monday for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar.
Even if Finland’s largest daily corrected the story, the old headline was still found in some tweets from Helsingin Sanomat.
Not only have members of “the Squad” revealed Trump’s racism towards people of color, but they helped expose it here in Finland and how our leading media talks about people who are not white.
Here is a simple definition for the media: If you are a USAmerican or Finnish citizen, you are a USAmrican and Finn. Considering the racism that exists in our societies, it is too much for some to stomach this fact.
This means that representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley, and Omar are USAmericans who call themselves people of color. Disagree? Tell me a single person from the United States who isn’t of migrant origin.
The use of the term by some Finnish journalists shows how far off Finland still is from being an inclusive culturally and ethnically diverse society.
What do you think a congresswoman of the Squad would react if a Finnish journalist would refer to any of them in an interview as “people of migrant background?”
I suspect there would first be a smile and then irritation.
“Is that what you call people of color in Finland,” they may ask.
*White Finnish media story of the day highlights how the national media racializes Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society by maintaining antiquated, even racist and exclusive views about who has the right to belong and call this country their home.
It is not the first time when Migrant Tales has spotted mistakes by the Finnish media. The latest one involves a story concerning US President Donald Trump’s racist tweets against four minority congresswomen: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar.
The original story, which referred to the four congresswomen as “people of migrant origin,” revealed how Finland’s largest daily labels and racializes non-white people.
About seven hours after the story was published, Helsingin Sanomat corrected the story.
Even if Helsingin Sanomat corrected the headline and the story by taking away the term that referred to the congresswomen as “people of migrant origin,” it is a prime example of how the Finnish media, which is about 99% white, excludes and labels non-white people.
The term “people of migrant origin” or “people of foreign origin” are code or racial buzzwords for a person who is non-white and born outside of the EU. Never or rarely would a white EU citizen or USAmericans be labeled by the media as “person of migrant origin.”
*White Finnish media story of the day highlights how the national media racializes Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society by maintaining antiquated, even racist and exclusive views about who has the right to belong and call this country their home.
A headline in a Helsingin Sanomat news story about US President Donald Trump’s racist tweets to “the Squad,” four progressive women elected to congress in 2018, highlights how the media racializes non-white people in Finland.
While the story uses the Finnish News Agency (STT) and AFP as sources, the copy editors at Helsingin Sanomat could do a much better job instead of labeling people of color as people of migrant origin.
Helsingin Sanomat calls the four congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar, “people of migrant origin” when, in fact, they should be called people of color or minorities.
In my opinion, people of migrant origin is a convenient term to deny people of color and other minorities the right to be equal members of society. How can one be equal if you are constantly reminded with problematic labels that you are outsiders and eternal migrants?
I wonder how the four US congresswomen would react in an interview if a white Finnish journalist called them “people of migrant origin.”
They would, I suspect, be surprised. It would prompt a swift reaction: Who isn’t a person of migrant origin in the United States, they’d ask.
Even if some ethnonationalist groups in Finland like to romanticize that they were chipping stones right after the Ice Age, every white Finn, every single one, in this country is “a person of migrant origin.”
That label used by Finland’s largest newspaper is not only offensive but shows Helsingin Sanomat’s ignorance and prejudice towards people of color. It reveals how racialized the media is when it speaks of non-white people in Finland.
Instead of seeing Finland through racialized lenses, the media should show leadership in promoting inclusion and public spaces to people of color instead of constantly reinforcing their exclusion with labels made up by them.
Does the Finnish language have a translation for the term people of color? If it doesn’t like integration (kotoutuminen) about twenty years ago, it should find one.
In the late-1990s and apart from the term integroituminen, Finland had to invent a new term for integration because there was no appropriate word in the Finnish language.
*White Finnish media story of the day highlights how the national media racializes Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society by maintaining antiquated, even racist and exclusive views about who has the right to belong and call this country their home.
On the left SS chief Heinrich Himmler inspecting a prisoner or concentration camp in Russia around 1941; on the right US Vice President Mike Pence visiting a detention facility or concentration camp in Texas.
