Category: Enrique Tessieri

Is this an example of how racism appears in the Finnish media?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There is a lot of shoddy journalism out there but the worst of the lot is journalism that reinforces and spreads prejudices, racism and bigotry. 

I couldn’t believe me eyes when I read the following headline today: “The much-feared rape wave [by asylum seekers] didn’t happen, police confirm.” 

The first question that comes to mind is where did the reporter that wrote the story assume that there was going to be in a rape wave committed in summer by asylum seekers?

Can the Finnish media be so gullible, even racist?

Can the Finnish public be so gullible, even racist?

Yes, they can.

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Read the full story here.

Since the majority of all rapes committed in Finland are done by white Finnish males, why doesn’t the story even bother to mention this fact?

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Two words that shed light on what the Perussuomalaiset party is: racist bravado

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If there would be two words that define what the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is all about, it would racist bravado. By the way, the PS is no common racist party but a member of the government. It shares power with the Center Party and National Coalition Party, which usually look the other way when the PS has one of its racist fits. 

These parties usually look the other way because they too have issues with racism among its ranks.

Disagree about my description of the PS?

PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, whose racist antics we’ve read during the past years, is one of many examples of the type of racist bravado that the populist anti-immigration party spreads.

Apart from the MP’s numerous posts, like gays, Swedish-speaking Finns and Somalis should be sent to the Åland Islands, Hakkarainen reveals his bravado in an interview with Kankaanpään Seutu, where he defies a possible sentence for hate speech.

Hakkarainen wrote in a Facebook posting that “all Muslims aren’t terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. Finland should not accept any Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to Finland,” according to him.

The PS MP is under investigation by the police for hate speech. His bravado is quite evident in Kankaanpään Seutu.

“Bring it on if I get sentenced [for hate speech]. I’ll take care of this in my own way,” he was quoted as saying. “Of course [one should follow the law]. But this [possible sentence for hate speech] is like a speeding ticket. Everything is today seen as hate speech.”

Hate speech is nothing more than a speeding ticket?

 

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Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Hakkarainen’s bravado not only shows how much disregard an MP of the PS has for cultural diversity, but how toothless the law is when it comes to challenging such a social ill.

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Being FUCKING INSANE in today’s Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Following the high court decision in France that ruled to suspend the anti-burkini decree in southern France, it looks like the row will not die down, according to The Guardian. Imagine how “offended” people like former president Nicolas Sarkozy and others are demanding a nationwide prohibition of the burkini in France. 

As the burkinigate scandal rages in France because their white French privilege and pride suffered a dent, in Finland we’re going through the same motions with invisible white minorities like the Swedish speakers.

A University of Stockholm study, which was cited in a tabloid Ilta-Sanomat story, showed that of the 412 Swedish-speaking Finns interviewed close to 300 saw themselves threatened in Finland because of their background.

As our xenophobia, racism and bigotry get the best of us and overwhelm our sound judgment, we’ll continue making FUCKING INSANE (see tweet below) proposals and act like total d**ks. 

We’ll vote for parties like the Perussuomalaiset*, and mainstream ones that are no different from them, that make these FUCKING INSANE proposals and blame migrants and minorities for their utter failures.

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Source: Twitter. 

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Forssa, Finland: A hotbed of racist behavior where words turn into bullets

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The southwestern town of Forssa is located 116km from Helsinki. A mass fight took place there on Tuesday between white Finns and asylum seekers, according to YLE News. 

Writes YLE News: “Police in the town of Forssa on Wednesday detained several people in relation to disturbances outside an asylum reception centre which occurred on Tuesday night.

Witnesses say that a large group of locals approached the reception centre, fighting a group of residents of the centre once they arrived. Police say that both groups used weapons in the brawl.”

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A warning: “Fuck off [asylum seekers] from my Forssa.” Source: Kirsi Hipp.

Forssa has established a committee with the Red Cross to calm tensions in the town. We wonder how many asylum seekers, migrants and minorities form part of such a committee. It they are members of such a committee, will their suggestions be taken seriously?

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Racism in Finland and elsewhere 101

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Racism and other social ills like bigotry are made to appear complex by those that perpetrate them. Making discrimination look complex is nothing more than a way of giving it shelter through a lie called denial.

In Finland, there is racial prejudice, racial discrimination and racism and lots of it.

Let’s take a rapid look at racism in Finland and elsewhere 101 in four simple pictures and a video that explains reverse racism in the United States.

Even if the video applies to the United States, it could well apply to Finland or any European country.

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An example of racial prejudice in Finland is that certain ethnic groups only want to live off social welfare and are rapists. Source: Sociological Cinema.
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A good example of racial discrimination in this country is not landing an interview because you speak Finnish with an accent and because you’re not the “right” ethnicity. Source: Sociological Cinema.

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After targeting migrants and asylum seekers with tougher laws, Sipilä’s government now sets its eyes on Roma panhandlers

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Should we be surprised after the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä tightened immigration policy it is now targeting the Romany minority? If the government has its way, Finland will criminalize panhandling. 

Sipiläs government, which comprises of the National Coalition Party (NCP) and anti-immigration populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is one of the most anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity governments in a long time.

The first question that such a draft law that would criminalize panhandling raises is why it is needed in the first place? Are Roma panhandlers from countries like Romania and Bulgaria such a problem?

PS MP Raimo Lehto believes so.

“Panhandling should be forbidden because it annoys and bothers Finnish citizens,” he said, “and they tell us that they should be taken off the street because they frighten certain people.”

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Read and watch the full interview (in Finnish) here.

The new law, which specifically targets Roma from countries like Romania and Bulgaria, comes after the government passed laws that did away with residence permits under humanitarian grounds, tightened family reunification requirements and shortening appeal times for asylum seekers.

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If we are against racism, bigotry and homophobia why do we continue to be Facebook friends?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some may rightly ask why it took over a year to charge former PS substitute councilman Olli Sademies for stating that African men should be sterilized, Here’s another question: Why are there so few light-slap-on-the-hand sentences for hate speech in Finland? In 2009-14 there were only 27 people who were sentenced for ethnic agitation, according to MTV, which cites Statistics Finland.

All of this points to one thing that we are near-constantly denying: Racism, bigotry and discrimination have deep roots in Finland and such social ills are perpetrated by white Finnish privilege.

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Former Perussuomalaiset party member and retired policeman Olli Sademies is being charged for ethnic agitation. His comments are so full of racism that he’s on the same level as former PS MP hothead James Hirvisaari. He’s an example of not only the racism and ignorance of Finnish society but their deep roots in the police and politics. Would you be Sademies’ Facebook friend?

Institutions like the police service are so deeply immersed in their own denial of racism and bigotry that they actually believe that they don’t ethnically profile anyone.

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Former PS deputy councilman of Helsinki to be charged for ethnic agitation

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* deputy councilman for Helsinki, Olli Sademies, who suggested last year on Facebook that Africans should be forcibly castrated will be charged for ethnic agitation, according to Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest-circulating daily. 

Sademies, who is a retired policeman, was sacked from the PS in September.

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Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

The former PS local politician denied any wrongdoing and claimed he was innocent.

“Freedom of speech and expression also includes saying things that  may even upset some population groups,” he was quoted as saying in Helsingin Sanomat. “I hope that the district court [of Helsinki] acquaints itself with the decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights on this matter.”

During 2009-2014, only 27 people have been sentenced for ethnic agitation, according to MTV, which cites Statistics Finland.

The greatest number of sentences for ethnic agitation were given in 2012, which was 12.

Ever wonder how people like Sademies were ever accepted in the police service and the PS?

It says a lot about how much denial there is in Finland about racism.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” 

The Finnish media’s “fascination” of racists is a problem

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here’s a simple question: Why on earth does a newspaper like Etelä-Suomen Sanomat of Lahti even bother to publish a story about a handful of racists who demand that Finland shuts its borders to asylum seekers? 

The answer to that question could shed a lot of light on how the media treats groups that are against our Nordic values, Constitution, and hostile to migrants and minorities.

One of the reasons why the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party saw a rapid rise in the 2008 municipal and especially in the 2011 parliamentary elections was, unfortunately, media fascination over the new “party on the block,” which was overtly anti-EU, anti-migration and especially anti-Islam.

When you ask some analysts why a party like the PS attracted so much interest, you’ll usually get a typical white Finnish answer: They were an option to voter skepticism of traditional parties. If so, why does this skepticism target migrants and encourages politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Juho Eerola and many others to be hostile racists on steroids?

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Read full story here.

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How Finnish-as-a-second-language courses relegate people to second-class status

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even children who are born in Finland but whose parents aren’t Finns are sent to S2 (Suomi toisena kielenä) language courses. One student, who attended for three years S2 Finnish-language courses, claims that such courses won’t help him succeed at university.

 Moreover, what does it mean to be part of an S2 program in a racialized country like Finland that labels even naturalized Finns as “people with foreign background?”

“The problem is that S2 teaches you basic Finnish for the workplace but doesn’t help you to learn how to write essays when you go to university,” said the former student, who attended S2 courses in the 7-9 grades. “This means that you’ll end up doing menial low-paying jobs all your life because your writing skills aren’t up to par.”

The mother of a child, who was put in an S2 class when he started school because his parents were born abroad, expressed concern about how such classes would affect her son.

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