Author: Migrant Tales

Defining white Finnish privilege #18: Labeling others according to your prejudices

Posted on by Migrant Tales

White Finnish privilege gives the right to label others according to the group’s prejudices. The terrible gang rape on Monday and the reaction of the media and police, reveal that white Finnish privilege and labeling minorities to suit one’s prejudices are alive and kicking in this country. 

The police call those who aren’t white Finns “people with immigrant backgrounds.” Schools, policy makers, government officials, politicians and a long list of others use that term to mean that person isn’t a white Finn, or “us.”

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Another term that doesn’t fuel respect is “mamu,” especially when it is used by white Finns to talk about immigrants.

 

The problem with this label is that it relegates people to being near-permanent outsiders and thus not worthy of being treated equally because they have “immigrant backgrounds.”

Continue reading “Defining white Finnish privilege #18: Labeling others according to your prejudices”

Using the term “immigrant background” in a bigoted country

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In a country like Finland, where even politicians can make political careers with their bigotry, what impact does the label “immigrant background” have in reinforcing intolerance and prejudices? 

This question is an important one because, like racism, the label rarely if ever affects white Finns.

The tragic rape of a woman this week by a group of teenagers in the northern Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila is a case in point.

Even if the police apprehended the five suspects and they were in custody, they labeled them in a statement as having “immigrant backgrounds.” The police said that the ethnic label used in the statement was necessary since they needed more eyewitnesses.

Helsingin Sanomat used the term “immigrant background” in a first take of a story. In a column the daily explained why it took out the ethnic label in a newer take but admitted that it could have been left in the story since the police were trying to get more eyewitnesses.

Even if the daily posed some good questions about the problem in using such a label and if it is ethical under the circumstances that all of the suspects were apprehended, Helsingin Sanomat contradicted itself in another story where it highlighted in a headline that it later changed from “every third sentenced [for rape] was a foreigner” to “Tapanila gang rape suspects have been jailed.”

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Continue reading “Using the term “immigrant background” in a bigoted country”

UPDATE (Mar. 13): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

Mar. 13

Raiskauksia paljastuu aiempaa enemmän – joka kolmas tuomittu ulkomaalaistaustainen or Raiskauksia paljastuu aiempaa enemmän – Tapanilan joukkoraiskauksesta epäilyt vangittiin  (Helsingin Sanomat)

What’s wrong with the below? It’s been a terrible week for Finland’s leading daily Helsingin Sanomat. In reporting a rape case that took place Monday night in northern Helsinki, the police made a mistake by revealing in a statement that the five teenagers were of “immigrant backgrounds.” It is considered unethical to reveal the person’s ethnic identity if the suspect is no longer at large. Two days later Helsingin Sanomat fumbles the ball again with a story about how more rape cases are being brought to justice than before. In the original headline, they state that “every third person sentenced [for rape] is a person with immigrant background.”  That problematic headline, which victimizes all migrants, was changed. It now reads: “The suspects of the Tapanila [rape case] will be held in custody.” What do these two stories reveal about the Finnish police and Helsingin Sanomat? Biased and sloppy journalism that is more interested in reinforcing urban tales than challenging them.

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Now you see it…

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…now you don’t.

UPDATE (Mar. 11): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

Mar. 11

Tapanilan raiskaus ja HS:n uutisointi – Mitä kertoa, kun epäillyt ovat jo kiini? (Helsingin Sanomat)

Some bad and some good journalism. The police said in a statement that a group of 15-18-year-olds who raped a woman on Monday in Tapanila, a neighborhood of northern Helsinki, had “immigrant backgrounds.” A few minutes later after publishing the story Helsingin Sanomat, which relied on the police statement, took out the word since the suspects were in police custody. Stating a person’s ethnic identity can be helpful if the suspect is still at large. This may be problematic, however, since a person with “immigrant background” encompasses a very large group. In practice it is anyone who isn’t a white Finn. In the present xenophobic climate and with parliamentary elections only a month away, some anti-immigration sites are pointing the accusing finger at Helsingin Sanomat for removing the word “immigrant background” in the story as a clear example that Finland’s largest daily favors “foreigners.” A question that should always be asked when mentioning a suspect’s ethnic background is if the person is under custody or is still at large?

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Tapanila sexual assault in Finland sends a disturbing signal about our society

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Something terrible happened on Monday night after 9pm at the Tapanila train station of northern Helsinki. A group of 15-18-year-olds were reportedly harassing a young woman on a train, who was later sexually assaulted by the same suspects outside the station, according to Helsingin Sanomat. 

No respectable news organization or police force with integrity should be interested in spreading racial stereotypes or fueling racial hatred. It’s not considered ethical in journalism to mention the suspect’s ethnicity if the person is under police custody.

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Read full story here.

Identifying somebody by ethnicity can be problematic as well. Even if the suspects had been apprehended, the police mentioned in a statement that those under custody were of “foreign background.”

Continue reading “Tapanila sexual assault in Finland sends a disturbing signal about our society”

UPDATE (Mar. 10): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

Mar. 10

PAM: Ulkomaalaisomisteisiin ravintoloihin tarvitaan lisää valvonta (YLE)

What’s wrong with this story? Right from the onset of the news story, in the headline, there is a serious problem: In one shot PAM, a trade union that represents workers in the private service sector, claims that the authorities should have more resources to monitor restaurants owned by foreigners since they exploit their employees. While this may be true in some cases, the article generalizes and labels all restaurants run by foreigners. While there are foreign employers that abuse their employees, the same practice happens at restaurants owned by Finns as well. Singling out only foreign restaurants, and suggesting that they exploit employees, labels and stigmatizes all foreign restaurants.  This is poor and careless journalism at its worst that reinforces prejudices against foreigners instead of  bringing solutions to the table.

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Racism and time

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Racism is harmful because it robs you of one of your most important things in life: time. 

In the same way that Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-70) asked in a poem where sighs, tears and love go,* do we know where time goes after it’s used up? 

Since humans are social animals, attack and prey on others in a pack, how would we collectively rob others of a priceless commodity such as time? How would we deprive such a group of the same rights and privileges we enjoy?

Would racism and discrimination be formidable weapons in this task?

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European racism is like a Cadillac but has the ability to appear and vanish

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Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year.

Malcolm X (1925-65)

The story of the three Chelsea fans who are suspected of turning away a black person from entering a train on the Paris subway station of Richelieu-Drovat highlights the many “Cadillacs” and shades of racism in today’s Europe as well as its ability to appear and vanish.  

One of the suspects in the Paris metro affair is Richard Barklie, 50, when a black man, Souleymane Sylla, was shoved from entering a carriage. While this was happening, supporters were heard chanting: “We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it.”

Barklie claims that the black man was shoved away because the carriage was full and had nothing to do with racism.

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Read full story here.

Continue reading “European racism is like a Cadillac but has the ability to appear and vanish”

UPDATE (Mar. 6): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

Mar. 6

Olli Immonen rajoittaisi somaleiden maahanmuuttoa (Verkkouutiset)

What’s wrong with this story? We all know what Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen’s xenophobic views are about migration and especially about Muslims. No news here. It wasn’t too long ago when Finnish officials avoided using the term “refugee” for Soviet citizens that were fleeing the USSR since the term wasn’t liked by its giant eastern neighbor. Similarly, there were so few migrants in Finland in the 1980s that such people weren’t even called migrants but aliens. In the Verkkouutiset story the term asylum is only mentioned once even if Somalis are considered refugees fleeing a civil war that has ravaged the country since the early 1990s. Not only does Verkkouutiset accept Immonen’s terminology but sides with it by default. The Verkkouutiset story is a good example of how the Finnish media plays down the humanitarian suffering of groups like Somalis by simply regurgitating an Islamophobes claims that “migration [not refugees fleeing war] from that country” must be halted.

 

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Continue reading “UPDATE (Mar. 6): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism”