White saviors come in many sizes and shapes. Whatever shape and size, they stunt equality for one simple reason: The white savior is on top handing out his harmful empathy to minorities.
How can I claim that white saviors aren’t well-intentioned people?
Not only disobey unjust laws but challenge white saviors.
From personal experience.
While racism and discrimination are constant variables that rob people of their equal rights and opportunities, they also regulate them to second-class status.
Finnish white privilege #89
When you are a second-class member of society, the ones blocking you in many cases from realizing your full potential are those damn white saviors crying crocodile tears over you.
The only way to deal with this toxic situation is by exposing it and making your opinion heard: I don’t want your help that relegates me in a wheelchair. Treat me equally with all the rights and obligations entitled theoretically to me.
There was no red wave, never mind a red tsunami, in the midterm elections in the United States. Defying the precedent of past elections, the Democrats gave the Republicans a beating they will not easily forget. What lessons can Finland learn from the US midterm elections?
For one, voters shunned extremist positions on issues like election denial, immigration, abortion, and civil rights.
If there are losers in Finland resulting from the US elections, it is, without a doubt, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. We could compare it to the early 2010s when populist anti-immigration parties like the PS entered the major leagues of Finnish politics.
Everything was riding high for the PS until an Islamophobe mass murderer, Anders Breivik, killed 77 innocent people in Norway.
Finland’s very own MAGA Perussuomalaiset, Vilhelm Junnila, and Veikko Valliin. Source: Facebook
Watch Thursday’s parliamentary question-and-answer sessions if you want to watch “the crazies” lashing out whenever the PS candidates awoke by the magic term maahanmuutto (immigration). They go off the wall throwing their extremist spaghetti wherever it may stick.
Apart from the rejection of extremist Republican candidates, leadership was needed from other politicians to call out these crazies.
In September, President Joe Biden called the MAGA Republicans “semi-fascists.”
It is high time we do the same in Finland and call out these extremist politicians for what they are: fascists and a threat to democracy.
Well, Sannikka is at it again, and wouldn’t you know that she had something lowly to say about migrants?
Tuesday’s A-studio talk show was about civil disobedience, and Sannikka asked an environmental activist if her civil disobedience would include crimes committed by migrants.
WTF?
That is pretty far-fetched and reveals that Sannikka has an agenda against minorities and migrants.
It was in 2020 when Helsingin Sanomatpublished a big story about the dangers of youth gang violence in Helsinki. The story received a lot of criticism because it spread the misinformation that youth crime is rising in Helsinki and Greater Helsinki.
It isn’t surprising that the state-owned broadcaster, Yle, has spread the issue, especially after Sweden’s parliamentary election, which was won by the far-right Sweden Democrats, which took up youth gang violence as one of their main campaign issues.
The tactic by the Sweden Democrats and the right-wing Moderates paid off.
Considering Finland will hold parliamentary elections in April, it should not surprise us that the far-right Finns Party and its National Coalition Party partner are feverishly searching for a successful campaign issue that centers on migrants and minorities.
In all three parliamentary elections last decade, the PS’s good showing was boosted by some news involving asylum seekers, mainly Muslims:
The 2011 parliamentary election, when the PS won 39 seats from 5 previously, was helped by reporting that was more amazed at the new racist kid on the political block. Even parties like the Social Democrats started copying the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric. PS rising political “stars” like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Juho Erola, Timo Soini, and others got their places in the sun. Things were so bad back then that Islamophobes were invited to give their opinions on talk shows about immigration policy..
In the 2015 parliamentary election, when the PS duplicated its 2011 result by gaining 38 seats, a rape happened in the Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila one month before the election. The crime got a lot of attention in the media, and Yle went as far as to ask people of the Somali community why “they always rape.” The police also helped by labeling the suspects “people of foreign decent,” even if they were born in Finland. Why was it essential for the public to know the latter?
The PS got another present in the 2019 election when suspects, mainly asylum seekers, were accused of sexually harassing minors. Even if the media, and the police, who warned people to stay away from foreigners, reached hysterical levels, the PS, with the aid of parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), promised to get tough on migrants. The PS almost won the parliamentary election in April.
Is youth gang violence in Finland one of the winning campaign issues for April’s parliamentary election?
So far, Yle has brought the issue to the public through A-studio and Monday’s 8:30 pm news. Who is making such editorial decisions?
The Yle reporter introduces the topic: “Shootings in public places, bragging about criminals, and showing it on social media indicate that street gang criminal activity has grown in Finland, according to the police.” Source: Yle
Many questions arise from such reporting. Some of the main ones are if gang violence is a problem, like in Sweden and why it is an issue today. Doesn’t the media bear any responsibility for labeling all minority youths?
The Finnish mainstream media has a poor reputation in the eyes of racialized Finns for spreading and labeling them. Yle did it again on its 8:30 pm news, where it led with a picture of a white youth giving the finger, followed by no sources except for “the police believes” that street gang criminal activity has taken a turn for the worst.
Then the reporter gives her verdict, sourcing her opinions to the police without mentioning statistical information, never mind an official’s name.
“Shootings in public places, bragging about criminals and showing it on social media indicate that street gang criminal activity has grown in Finland, according to the police.”
The Yle reporter states that the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) said four years ago that there were no youth street gangs in Finland. Today there are about ten gangs, mainly in Turku and Helsinki and surroundings, with about 200 members, according to the police.
Surprise, surprise: “Youth gangs are different from motorcycle gangs,” the reporter states, “since they listen to rap music, they are mainly men of foreign background and exert influence in the neighborhoods they live.”
I had the opportunity to interview Petra Laiti in 2017. A steadfast activist for Saami rights, I remember one matter from the interviews: Her clear views and eloquence. She is a gifted leader.
If Finland has a questionable reputation, how it treats Others like migrants and minorities, the Saami is a case in point. In the 1970s, Finland still punished school pupils for speaking their home language.
Laiti said in the interview her advice on how to confront racism and hatred: “Make as much noise as you can! she said.
A Kanta-Häme district court that dropped charges against seven police officials and security guards for forcibly removing in 2017 two Muslim women’s hijabs will not be treated by the court in what remains of the year but in 2023, according to prosecutor Heidi Savurinne.
Two asylum seekers saw their hijabs removed forcibly in 2017 by the police and security guards because they refused to take them off for a photo. Finland does not allow Muslim women to wear the hijab if they enter the police force. Source: Yle
The case is significant from the view of religious freedom and equality before the law. Why are asylum seekers forced to remove their hijabs for police photos if those with residence permits don’t have to? As long as a woman’s face isn’t covered, EU law allows women to use the hijab for a passport picture.
It’s been over 40 years since a group of foreigners and Finns organized a demonstration from the Porthania’s University of Helsinki to the steps of parliament. It happened on a Tuesday, 19 October, and it was a very cold day.
Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, which has had a murky history for publishing and attacking Somalis and other migrants in the 1990s, publishes a story about two Romany women who shoplift 2,600 euros of merchandise.
Certainly, shoplifting is a crime, but what about when a tabloid publishes a story that reinforces stereotypes about a certain group? Considering that Ilta-Sanomat was responsible in the 1990s for fueling Finnish racism against groups like the Somalis, isn’t that “a crime” also?
In the Finnish media, tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat have published racist stories. From left to right: This year, Finland will receive 10,000 illegal refugees (sic!); The Somalis coned the authorities to give them asylum; (right) Suomen Kuvalehti wrote in 1940 that the Finnish soldier did not run away, but an African tribe in the Indian Ocean does.
Apart from pointing out that the two women had hidden the merchandise in their Romany dresses, one of the suspects had yelled and acted aggressively against the security guard.
What would have happened if the shoplifters had been white Finns? If it were news, the tabloid would probably lead with the following headline: “A white Finns shoplifts.”
Who would be interested in reading such a story?
In our opinion, the story about the Romany women shoplifters has no other role than exposing the reporter’s prejudices and racist stereotypes of Romany women.
