Since the 2011 parliamentary elections, which saw the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party win 39 starts from 5 seats previously, it has systematically tarred and feathered migrants, especially Muslims, people of color, and specific minorities.
Should you be surprised that all PS MPs elected in 2019 based their campaign on an anti-immigration message.
The PS demands that Finland should strive for zero asylum seekers (code for Muslims). Those that remain in Finland must endure the constant racism, labeling, and bombardment of their group.
PS MP Minna Reijonen epitomizes this toxicity in a question to the government during a session of parliament.
Source: YouTube
MP Reijonen parrots the PS’ populist and racist stance of migrants and minorities, planting the seeds of future social strife.
It should not surprise us that anti-Semitism is also on the rise in Finland. An article in Kirkko ja kaupunki revealed the cost of security needed at the Helsinki Synagogue has soared between 2017 and 2021. Yaron Nadbornik, president of the 1,100-strong Jewish community of Helsinki, was quoted as saying that the cost of security at the synagogue has jumped from 200,000 euros in 2017 to 450,000 euros in 2021.
Personal donation targets have also risen sharply, from 15,000 euros to 50,000 euros.
He said: “The purpose of our community is not to maintain security, but to maintain Jewish life in Finland and especially in Helsinki. In the past, it was not known precisely how much money was spent on security because it was not a meaningful metric that we followed closely.”
Nadbornik added that the accounting system to monitor security was changed three years ago giving a more precise view of such costs.
In an interview last year, the president of the Jewish community of Helsinki said that only recently the police have acknowledged that there is an anti-Semitism problem in Finland.
“The authorities have recognized during 2018-2019 that there is an anti-Semitism problem in Finland,” he said. “Before, it was [for them] pretty unclear if such a matter existed.”
In 2017, Nadbornik blamed the government and police of Finland for not doing enough to clamp down on hate speech, which was directly linked to anti-Semitism.
In the interview with Kirkko ja kaupunki, he stated that the police understand the threat of physical harm, but if somebody paints a Nazi symbol on the synagogue’s wall it is not treat it as a hate crime.
In many parts of the world, racist graffiti is considered a hate crime.
We recommend that the Jewish Community of Helsinki ask the police why they don’t treat racist graffiti like a swastika a hate crime.
I hadn’t heard the statement, “I’m a racist,” for a long time. Even so, two middle-aged women were chatting in Mikkeli loudly about how bad migrants were.
I intervened because silence is a total cop-out.
“Are you a racist,” I asked one of the women.
“Yes, I’m a racist,” she snapped.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for being a racist,” I responded.
There is no need to write what they continued to say about migrants because it was straight from a Perussuomalaiset* playbook.
We cannot just snuggle here and see who comes to the border. We must promote the values of the EU with greater determination because without these values we are worthless.
We just read about the tragic death of 27 people when attempting to cross the English Channel. One of the victims was a pregnant woman with three children, according to The Guardian.
Even if Britain and France are pointing the finger, nothing will change, and refugees, people, will continue to die.
The cold-hearted treatment and hostility towards people attempting to apply for asylum in the EU show that Europe is addicted to lies.
The lie has had terrible consequences. For one, 44,746 people have drowned while crossing the Mediterranean between 1993 and 2021, according to United.
It is ok to utter the full n-word on Finnish television, as we saw on Friday on the Marja Sannikka show, which turned out to be a fiasco revealing how little homework the host had done and how polarized and ignorant Finnish society is of racism.
Apart from not telling the host Esko Valtaoja that he shouldn’t use the n-word because it is offensive and next to a racialized Finn, Valtaoja exposed his prejudices further when he was quoted in Iltalehti.
Trying to justify his use of the n-word, he stated that the other guest “was white.”
“I don’t understand why an apology is needed. If I had known what this other white person’s [Ebrahimi] reaction would be, I would have used a different way [of expressing myself]. But I couldn’t have known then. We must remember that Ebrahimi is as white as me (sic!). According to my understanding, she is of Iranian-Kurdish background, and her skin color is white.”
Ymmärräthän, että jos joku käyttää rasismin uhreja puolustaessaan sanoja ja ilmaisuja, joita sinä et ymmärrä tai hyväksy, se ei tarkoita sitä, että sinulla on oikeus vastineeksi käyttää vähemmistöä solvaavia sanoja. Näin tapahtui vastikään Ylellä Marja Sannikan juontamassa viihdeohjelmassa.
Turvallinen tila ei ole paikka avaruudessa. Ilmaisulla tarkoitetaan sitä, että muualta muuttaneilla tai täällä syntyneillä, meitä ohutihoisia vähän tummemmilla ihmisillä täytyy olla sama oikeus kuin kaikilla muillakin saapua mihin hyvänsä paikkaan tai seuraan samoin oletuksin ja yhtä tuntemattomana kadun ihmisenä, kuin kaikki muutkin. Ei täräytetä heti päin naamaa kysymyksiä, joita ei kysytä kaikilta muiltakin: ”Puhutko suomea? Mistä olet kotoisin? Asutaanko kotikylässäsi vielä savimajasssa?”
Vastaukset kaikkiin uteliaisuuttasi kiihottaviin kysymyksiin tulevat kyllä esille ihan samalla tavoin kuin muutenkin ihmisten kanssa keskustellessa. Se, onko saunassa syntynyt, kuuluu keskusteluun vasta siinä vaiheessa, kun ollaan jo tuttuja ja ystäviä.
Kotimaata voi kysyä, jos osallistutaan vaikkapa tilaisuuteen, jossa on tarkoitus tutustua kansainvälisen opiskelijaryhmän jäseniin ja heidän kotimaihinsa. Mutta jos missä hyvänsä tavallisessa tilaisuudessa, missä on sinulle vierasta väkeä, menet kysymään kotimaata joukon tummimmalta, se on ihan sama kuin sanoisit suoraan: ”Sinä et kuulu meihin, olet tullut jostakin”. Ilkeimmillä on mielessä ajatus: ”Sosiaaliturvan takiako tulit”. Ja kuitenkin henkilö voi olla monen sukupolven suomalainen ja vaikka ei olisikaan, hänellä on täällä asuessaan ihan samat oikeudet ja velvollisuudet kuin muillakin. Myös terveyskeskuksen odotustilassa hän istuu ihan saman nuhan kanssa kuin pärskivä kyselijä ja tallasi matkalla samaan kuralätäkköön, kuin sinäkin.
Ajattele, kuinka monta kertaa päivässä, viikossa, kuukaudessa ja vuodessa kaikki he saavat tuon kysymyksen kuulla? Se ei sinusta ehkä ole tuntunut syrjivältä, mutta jos vähän mietit asiaa, opit kyllä olemaan liittymättä kotipaikkatiedustelijoiden laumaan.
Kun sitten television viihdeohjelmassa rasisteja tukeva juontaja johdattelee ja eläkeläistutkija kertoo henkilölle, joka on kutsuttu edustamaan ns. vastapuolta, että kun kerran n…itä on niin heitä pitää saaman n…iksi kutsuman, niin ollaan jo ihan silkan rasismin puolella. Ei kukaan, dementoituneita vanhuksia lukuunottamatta, enää tässä maassa ole epätietoinen siitä, että n-sana on loukkaava ja solvaava ja ihmisten erottelu ja solvaaminen ihonvärin tai syntyperän perusteella on rasistista.
Eikä asia muuksi muutu, vaikka se sana kuinka mukavalta omassa suussa maistuisi ja vaikka sitä on oma mummo käyttänyt, kun sinun synnytystäsi pimeässä saunassa avusti.
Last Friday, on the Marja Sannikka show about racism, was a fiasco. It was the worst talk show on racism I have seen in Finland. It was such a flop that the host, Sannikka, allowed one of the guests to say the full n-word twice and did not even object.
Before I continue, I would like to say that Renaz Ebrahimi is a brave woman who brought up some crucial points about the discrimination and racism minorities face daily in Finland.
The Marja Sannikka show was the worst talk show I have ever seen in Finland. It was like putting Renaz Ebrahimi in a shark tank with Esko Valtaoja and the host, who made no qualms about showing off their ignorance and white privilege. Ebrahimi held one’s own. See the full show here.
Thanks to the show, the n-word and the full n-word were trending on Twitter. Moreover, when you watch these types of flops you know that nothing will improve on the anti-racism front in Finland.
But what can you expect when the host and gust, Esko Valtaoja, an astronomer and writer, faced off Ebrahimi by using the full n-word on the show.
After listening to some of Valtaoja’s points, I wondered why Sannikka invited him? Apart from his ethnocentric views dressed in white privilege, there was nothing constrictive coming from him.
Sannikka’s comments about how to deal with racism were a flop as well. Like Valtaoja, she is white and has no idea what racism is because it has never affected her in the same way as Ebrahimi.
At best, she showed her ignorance of the issue.
Shameful lazy journalism where we allow our prejudices to dictate solutions that are full of flaws.
Racism is such a big issue in Finland that even white people are discriminated.
Another news story. Another example. You will lose out in the Finnish labor market if you don’t have a Finnish name. If there is overwhelming proof that this type of discrimination takes place, why does it continue? Why aren’t there any stories in the Finnish media that sued an employer for discrimination?
Why are we reading over and over again ad nauseam about labor market discrimination?
Instead of changing your name to a Finnish-sounding one, why isn’t enough being done?
The big issues isn’t exposing discrimination in the media and in studies, which is welcome, but not doing or doing very little about it is the problem. We don’t make a big fuss about discrimination because we don’t take it seriously enough.
Remember Husein Hamiid when he asked in summer a real estate agent about renting a hotel and restaurant? The real estate agent, who was a Perussuomnalaiset (PS)* municipal candidate for the city of Espoo, started to pry into Hamiid’s life: “What kind of family and relatives do you have? What is your religion? Could you send me a picture of your family? What year did you come to Finland?”
Hamiid, a Finnish citizen who has lived many years in Finland, would not stand for this type of discriminatory behavior. He filed charges against the real estate agent.
To his surprise, the police absolved the real estate agent of any wrongdoing. It argued that there was no discrimination.
I’m surprised that [they did not bring any charges against the real estate agent] when everything is written clearly and in black and white and is a clear-cut case,” said Hamiid. “[The real estate agent] has over 20 years experience as a real estate agent even in Spain and should know better:”
Hamiid added that it was surprising that the police gave the real estate agent the benefit of the doubt and sided with him.
Certainly, a real estate agent has the right to ask about a potential client’s background and rental brokierage agreements. Still, they must abide by non-discrimination legislation, according to the Federation of Real Estate Agency. Does the police ruling of Hamiid’s case mean that we can ask people their religion, pictures of their family? Yes, the police are giving the nod to such inappropriate behavior.
So what are the police’s arguments concerning Hamiid’s charges?
“Jotain on pahasti vialla, kun kokoomusta ei enää erota perussuomalaisista eikä iltapäivälehtia MV:stä. Tärkeintä näyttää olevan saada aikaan nettimölinää.”
