Category: Enrique Tessieri

An effective way of putting racism in context in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There are many ways to understand ethnic hatred and racism in Finland. One of these is by substituting the word ‘migrant’ for your ethnic group and/or ‘woman’ in a text that’s aimed at fueling ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Let’s take the recent claims of two politicians, MPs Tom Packalén and Pia Kauma, to see how passions are fueled or can be smothered. 

Original claim by Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Packalén.

Before: Gangs made up only of young people with migrant backgrounds said their motives are racist because their aim is to hurt white Finns.

After: Gangs made up of only young white Finns said their motives are racist because their aim is to hurt migrants and minorities.

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Before and after. Racism is like the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) mushroom. It looks beautiful when it fruits and may invite some to eat its hallucinogenic poison. Time, like racism, reveals the true face of this mushroom when it ages and dies.

 

As we all know, Packalén pulled a fast one on the media and public. The problem with the PS MP’s claim is that it just isn’t true and an inflated exaggeration. Even so, his claims have spread fear and labelled non-white Finns, encouraging even neo-Nazi groups like the Kansallinen Vastarinta and members of the PS to patrol the streets of Helsinki.

Here’s National Coalition Party MP Kauma’s claim.

Before: Migrant mothers buy new baby carriages with social aid.

After: White Finnish mothers buy new baby carriages with social aid.

Like with Packalén, Kauma’s claim is stuffed as well with lots of baloney.

Even if these two MPs made up these stories in light of the April parliamentary elections, is one point. But the other very important one is that they succeeded at getting a lot of media coverage, which was their original aim.

Check out the two postings below on how by just changing a few key words in a vengeful and racist text reveals the underhanded motives of the writer and brings the topic closer to home:

If you still are trying to grasp these two disgraceful examples, why not replace migrant or ethnic group with ‘woman.’

Remember how urban tales about women were and still may be rampant in Finland? Women can’t drive, they’re poor in math, all they know what to do is have babies and cook…This is the exact anatomy of racist discourse in Finland today. Migrants live off welfare, they’re lazy, sly and shouldn’t be trusted…

How many generations did such outright lies about women still continue to oppress them?

Ever figure out how it feels to be in a university math class and be the only women? Think about how much pressure there is on that woman and how much energy she must expend to prove that she’s just as good as her male classmates.

This exact feeling is what many migrants feel in society. They’re constantly trying to prove that they are just as good and worthy of being treated as equal members of society.

Thus there is nothing harmless when politicians reinforce prejudices about migrants. On the contrary – it is a violent act that aims through power to dominate others.

Add to the latter the near-silence of society and a bigger picture of the social ill emerges.

Racism is not only costly to society but especially to the victim.

 

* 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.

Finnish anti-immigration sound bites + near-silence of society = peril

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some soap operas are so sweet and melodramatic that they form cavities in your brain. In the same way, the message of anti-immigration and xenophobic parties is so outrageous that they leave a whole in your head.

 

Timo Soini and the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* which became Finland’s third-largest parliamentary bloc in 2011, are appealing to voters on two crucial issues in next April’s elections: migration and development aid, which they claim are costing Finland 2.7 billion euros, according to the PS. 

While it’s not surprising that a party that promotes xenophobia and has its roots in far-right ideology is targeting migrants and development aid, what is a continuing mystery is how they arrived at such calculations.

The figures were given at a press conference on Friday where PS’ chairman Soini, party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and Matti Putkonen were present.

While there were other topics discussed at the press conference by the PS members, it is surprising that not one journalist asked how they arrived at such costs (1.5 billion euros for migration and 1.2 billion euros for development aid). The latter figures were given as a solution on how to cut Finland’s budget deficit and spur economic growth.

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Read full story here. Eastern European migrants in Britain added 5 billion pounds to the economy, according to another BBC story.

 

With such figures and with such a xenophobic message, the PS is back to its favorite political fix: scapegoating.

What remains unclear is how attacking and scapegoating migrants is going to actually help Finland raise itself from its present economic slump. Some economist claim that it would do just the opposite: deepen our economic woes.

Certainly it’s difficult for a party that still believes in Social Darwinism to see migration and cultural diversity in a positive light. If i would have been present at the press conference, I would have asked Soini or Slunga-Poutsalo to name one country where migration has failed and been costly.

Just like adding 1 + 1 = 2, it’s clear that migration fuels growth as this BBC article shows. There was also a recent study by the OECD that revealed that migration had boosted growth in 2011 by 0.16% including pensions.

So why is the PS saying that migration is a burden for Finland? While in a different historical context, their aim is no different to what the Nazis did in the 1920s. They saw great potential in capitalizing on racial anti-Semitism as a mass political force.

When the PS scapegoats migrants, development aid, the public sector, the Greens and environmental policy, it not only shows its anti-Keynes side, but its similarity to parties like the ultra-conservative Tea Party as well as Thatcherism and Reaganomics.

John Maynard Keynes, who was one of the most influential economists in the past and even the present century, believed that during economic slumps it was the government that should step in and restore confidence in markets even if it meant increasing  budget deficits.  Austerity would only worsen matters.

It’s clear that the PS proposal to lower the cost of migration and development aid is meant for populist public consumption but also to help maintain a climate of suspicion and mistrust of  migrants and minorities. Certainly sensible Finns, who are the majority in this country, don’t want to follow the PS’s xenophobic path.

Finns and especially migrants and minorities should not stand idle in the face of such xenophobic sound bytes by parties like the PS but openly challenge them.

Certainly if we want to go down a ruinous path that will cause extreme hardships on Finland, the PS may be the party you are seeking to vote for in the April 2015 elections.

* 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.

 

 

Finnish NCP youth league gives thumbs down to cultural diversity

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Remember the proposals that the Youth League of the National Coalition Party (NCP) made last year concerning the type of society they’d like Finland to be in the future? Some of the many proposals that raised eyebrows and created quite a media storm back then included plans to scrap the Ombudsman for Minorities as well as ethnic agitation laws.

If last year’s proposals got them in hot water, their latest “wish list” could be criticized for what has been omitted or doesn’t say. For example, there is no mention whatsoever about Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity but it does favor plans to undermine religious freedom. If the youth league had its way, it would drop religion classes for migrants and concentrate more on teaching Finnish at schools.

Isn’t that what happens today?

 

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Read full NCP youth league program (in Finnish) here.

 

It is odd that those that drafted these proposals believe that by not teaching a non-Lutheran religion at school will automatically enhance these migrants’ and minorities’ chances of speaking Finnish.

There’s nothing new in this proposal. Youth Wing NCP former head, Wille Rydman, said the same thing when he suggested that multiculturalism should be substituted for Finnish-language courses.

Another proposal by the youth league is to deport those migrants who have been sentenced for a crime and that the government should do everything possible to invite skilled labor to Finland.

What the Youth Wing of the NCP means by inviting skilled labor to this country is that labor markets should give employers better opportunities to hire cheap labor.

It shouldn’t come to any surprise that the Youth Wing of the NCP has striking ideological similarities with the Perussuomalaiset.*

Both are in the business of coercion and domination of migrants by encouraging future Uncle Toms, or mamus.

 

* 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.

Finnish appeals court upholds earlier anti-Semitic court ruling

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An appeals court has upheld a Ylivieska-Raahe court ethnic agitation ruling Friday against Juha Kärkkäinen for publishing anti-Semitic opinion pieces on Magneettimedia, reports YLE. Kärkkäinen was fined last fall 45,000 euros for publishing anti-Semitic writings of Adrian Salbuch, Ted Pike, David Duke and others as well as cartoons that bear a striking resemblance to the former Nazi tabloid, Der Strümer (1923-45).

Apart from the anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and xenophobic opinion pieces and articles published by Magneettimedia, one of the witnesses that Kärkkäinen brought to court to speak in his defense is the leader and website editor of the the neo-Nazi association, Suomen Kansallinen Vastarinta, according to Oulu-based Kaleva.

Kärkkäinen is owner of a company that bares his name and which is based in Ylivieska. He owns shopping center in the cities of Lahti and Oulu.

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Magneettimedia is rife with anti-Semitism, xenophobia and Nazi glorification.

 

The Kärkkäinen case raises a lot of disturbing questions about anti-Semitism in Finland. For one, it casts a strange light on Islamophobic parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and Muutos 2011, which claim to be on Israel’s side but have not raised a whisper about Kärkkäinen and Magneettimedia’s anti-Semitic writings.

Muutos 2011 MP James Hirvisaari, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation and sacked from the PS after he posted on social media a picture he took a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament, commonly speaks out against halal meat used by Muslims but never speaks of banning kosher meat used by Jews.

The appeals court ruling requires Magneettimedia to take down its anti-Semitic writings but the publication is defiant, pledging to continue the same editorial line without specifying what this means.

In September, the city of Ylivieska awarded Kärkkäinen the Pro Ylivieska distinction, which is given to a person or association that has distinguished himself or herself in the community and nationally.

In September an Ylivieska official who spoke to Migrant Tales said that the award had nothing to do with his opinions. “What he thinks [about Jews] is his personal opinion and we have nothing to do with that,” the official said.

A news story by the Finnish News Agency (STT) that appeared in Mikkeli-based daily Länsi-Savo Saturday interviewed the chairman of the Ylivieska city council, Juha Pylväs, who didn’t see any problems with awarding Kärkkäinen the Pro Ylivieksa distinction.

When asked if the city has got feedback as a result of the award given to Kärkkäinen, Pylväs said that they had got a lot of positive feedback since it was given to a person who had helped develop the city.

Pylväs admits that there was “some criticism” but feedback has been mostly positive.

See also:

* 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.

 

Missä luuraavat kansanedustajat Kauma ja Packalén?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Olen kärsivällisesti odottanut kaksi vahvistusta: kansanedustajan Pia Kauman väite, että maahanmuuttaja naiset ostavat uusia lastenvaunuja sossun rahoilla ja kansanedustaja Tom Packalénin väite, että vain maahanmuuttaja jengit hyökkäävät kantasuomalaisia vastaan ja heidän motiivi on rasistinen, koska he haluavat vahingoittaa valkoisia suomalaisia.  

apujallu

Missä luraa vastaukset? Lahde: www.apu.fi

 

Molempien väite yhdistä vahvasti ”me” vastaan ”he”.

Miksi Kauma on niin hiljaa?

Miksi Packalén vaikene lähteistä?

Vastaus on selvää: molemmat ovat keksineet väitteet ja ”ongelmat?”

Miten tämä on mahdollista?

Poliitikot osaavat ratsastaa omien ja ihmisten ennakkoluulijalla ja rasismilla.

Näin on elämää ollut Suomessa valitettavasti pitkään.

The PS of Finland: When a morally bankrupt party crosses the line

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Tom Packalén case is not only a reminder of what Finland can expect if the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ever get into government, there is the real threat that we are in danger of forfeiting our successful Nordic welfare state for populism, nativist nationalism and xenophobia. In the face of this threat, it is the near-silence of our society in the face of this threat is a cause for serious concern. 

Where are the moral leaders of this country? The politicians? The Media? Why is President Sauli Niinistö so quiet? And what about the church, the artists and celebrities?

How many editorials have been written by Helsingin Sanomat or other dailies about the Packalén case, where he treats a social problem like youth gangs and marginalization as the “ripening fruits” of immigration policy? That his clarion call has encouraged street patrols by neo-Nazi groups and members of his party?

Why isn’t their outrage in the media about a statement by PS MP Olli Immonen, who warned that “if officials don’t have the will or resources to protect the security of its citizens,” Suomen Sisu will take matters into its hands?

The complacency of the politicians and the media must hinge on the general perception that populism and racism are given the benefit of doubt in this country.

Not taking a stand against a politician who labels whole vulnerable groups, in this case marginalized Finns and Finnish minority youths, is the crux of the problem. The same silence we are witnessing today by the complacent media is what permitted the PS to become the third-largest party in parliament in the 2011 elections.

It’s clear that when an MP from an anti-EU, anti-immigration and homophobic party like the PS mixes immigration policy and marginalized youth you are going to have an explosive brew. The exact purpose of Packalén’s blog was just that: to arouse and fuel suspicion of Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse society.

Näyttökuva 2014-10-15 kello 9.12.58

Despite what PS MP Tom Packalén claimed, the police said that there aren’t street gangs in Helsinki and there aren’t street gangs that are causing a crime wave. Read full story in Finnish here.

The PS is today a morally bankrupt party that has nothing to offer to Finland except for a polarized society, anti-immigration, nativist nationalistic and xenophobic rhetoric. For some white Finns this may be difficult to comprehend, but for migrants and other minorities the message is clear: the PS is a hostile and dangerous party to them.

The irony of the ongoing one-sided debate on our ever-growing cultural diversity is that the “ripening fruits” of the PS and anti-immigration sentiment are creating the problems that such parties warn us of. Social exclusion is costly to taxpayers.

Considering that about 60% of migrants live in poverty in this country speaks volumes about how we are not dealing with the issue. We are not tackling these problems because it is in the interest of parties like the PS to turn them into worse problems. It’s the way they get votes and forms part of a general scheme to keep Finland white.

Building a Finland based on social inequality, social exclusion and prejudice will end up destroying the very successful society we built after World War 2.

It took Finland about 27 years of bitter strife and devastation in the form of civil war, the rise of fascism in the 1930s and three terrible wars (Winter War, Continuation War and the Lapland War against Nazi German) to finally get it right and build a society based on our Nordic welfare state values like social equality, education and equal opportunity.

The undeclared “war” against our culturally diversity by parties like the PS resembles that Finland before 1945.

The PS is a morally bankrupt party because they have nothing to offer to this country except a ruinous recipe for failure.

 

* 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.

PS MP of Finland ready to patrol streets and take law into his own hands

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Remember what people said when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* won their historic election victory in 2011? ”Nothing is going to happen you’ll see…they’ll soon implode like the Rural Party did in the 1970s…” some said playing down the whole matter. After almost four years, the PS continues to polarize society by instilling fear and fueling racism but has now opened a new terrifying chapter in its strategy to gain power: mob rule. 

PS MP Tom Packalén, who falsely claimed on a blog entry that only migrant youth gangs in East Helsinki attack white Finns, has unleashed the darkest and most racist side of Finland.  Not only are MP Pakclaén’s claims false, they have been disproven by the police.

And let’s not forget the publication, Uusi Suomi, where MP Packalén’s blog entry and many others by the PS have been published. They are just as responsible as the PS for spreading racism in Finland.

In this latest bout of xenophobia in Finland, it’s the silence of the political parties and the media that doesn’t surprises us once again.

Making racist claims and victimizing migrants and minorities has become such a “normal” activity in this country that not even the PS leadership cares what some of their members say or will do.

Valkoinen valta-2_edited-1

The aim of parties like the PS and far-right associations like Suomen Sisu is to keep Finland white like the graffiti above that reads “white power.”

 

Suomen Sisu is a far-right association chaired by PS MP Olli Immonen whose aim is to keep Finland white. In a statement, Immonen warned that “if officials don’t have the will or resources to protect the security of its citizens,” Suomen Sisu will take matters into its hands.

Yes, no translation mistake since what you read is correct. A PS MP, a lawmaker, of a far-right association is ready to patrol Helsinki’s streets against real or imagined youth gangs.

While the PS has always shown its ugly and hostile side to migrants and minorities, the suggestion by one of its MPs to patrol streets with others like neo-Nazi Kansallinen Vastarinta and other PS members, which MP Packalén’s blog entry has encouraged, is totally unacceptable in a democracy such as Finland and should be condemned.

The blog entry by MP Packalén shows the desperate state of the party, which needs a big boost to come close to their 2011 election victory since the last three elections have been disappointing.

Finland needs the PS, the silence of other parties and a media that is blind because it is white like a hole in the head. The lack of leadership that we are witnessing today in the face of such racism and hostility is shameful.

Far-right and nationalistic parties in Finland, as is Europe, have become a grave threat to democracy and to the right of minorities to live in peace. It’s clear that matters will get worse as these parties, like the PS, get more power since the scapegoating won’t stop but get worse. Such intolerance has the danger of destroying our society.

We must do everything to stop the menace that is placing Finland in harm’s way and that danger is the PS and our shameful silence.

Leadership is needed more than ever now.

* 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.Thank you Pia Grochowski for the heads up! 

Defining white Finnish privilege #12: Case Tom Packalén

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Just like his colleague Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, MP Tom Packalén is another good example of white Finnish privilege. His example is in the same questionable league as National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma, who falsely accused migrant mothers of buying new baby carriages with social aid while Finnish mothers buy used ones. 

If you are a white Finn, an MP of an anti-immigration party like the PS and a former policeman, you have in Finland a lot of clout to say almost anything you want about migrants and minorities and put them in harm’s way, even if what you say is outright sinister because it promotes hatred and suspicion of other groups.

Packalén debated today with Marian Abdulkarim on Helsinki Radio. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen somebody in this country ask the right questions. The PS MP was on the defensive with Abdulkarim because he was forced to stay on the topic.

Some of the things that white Finnish privilege permits you to say is a ludicrous statement like ‘we’re not allowed to debate this topic,’ which Packalén has been doing all along as well as a long list of other anti-immigration politicians.

Here’s what Packalén wrote on his blog on Uusi Suomi : He claimed that a youth gang made up of only migrants is terrorizing East Helsinki and that one of its members said that their motive for hurting white Finns is racist.

The police has denied what Packalén claimed and have assured residents that there is no crime wave in East Helsinki.

Another ludicrous statement by the PS MP is that these youth gang member are the “ripening fruits” of our failed immigration and integration policy.

If Packalén had his way, he’d change our “failed” immigration and integration policy in such a way that it would be harder for asylum seekers and non-Europeans to come to Finland. Why? Because the PS and Packalén loath cultural diversity. They want to keep Finland white.

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Listen to radio program (in Finnish) here.

 

Packalén, like too many members of his party, aren’t only blinded by their white nationalism but by their ignorance about immigration.

Their claim that immigration and integration policy have failed is a myth they like to spread like most of the things they say and claim.

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This comment on Packalén’s Facebook wall gives an idea of how the PS MP has invigorated and fueled racist comments. This one by Carl Bauer, who compares blacks, which he calls the n-word, to half-monkeys hang on trees with their genitals. No racism in Finland? Think twice. And while you think about this type of blatant racism, ask why a PS MP allows it to happen on his Facebook page.  Thank you Sakari Timonen for the heads-up.

 

Certainly there are many things that could be improved in our immigration and integration policy, but not in the way that the PS wants.

If Abdulkarim gave Packalén a lesson on what racism is, I would tell him about Finnish emigration between 1860 and 1999, when over 1.2 million Finns left this country.

The Finns that moved to other countries founded associations, newspapers and were proud of their Finnish background and roots. In Argentina, where I have studied Finnish colonization for many years,  the Finns founded a colony in the middle of the subtropical jungle in order to live amongst themselves.

Packalén can refresh his memory as well about section 17 of our Constitution, which gives us rights to our language and culture.

Definition #12

White Finnish privilege means in the case of PS MP Packalén that I can make up stories about migrants  and put them in harm’s way.

Even if tabloids are writing sensationalist stories about youth gangs, spread fear and even get neo-Nazis to patrol streets, I’m not accountable for what I said.

See also:

* 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 ‘positive’ side of racism and sexism on social media

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What do social media sites say about how we socialize and interact with others? What does it say about racism and sexism, which have mushroomed  on social media sites? Associate professor of digital journalism and social media at the University of British Columbia, Alfred Hermida, said that the problem of social media is the ‘undetermined’ nature and immediacy that technology creates.  

“Instant information encourages action rather than contemplation,” Hermida was quoted as saying on The Globe and Mail. “It fosters ardor rather than nuance.

Social media has become a forum and a platform for people’s ideas and social interaction. Racism and sexism are one of its big topics.

“In some ways I think that’s a good thing because it says this [racism and sexism] is an issue: there is something rotten in the state of society,” he said. “More troubling is that once people see this type of behavior, others may think it’s acceptable.”

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Read full interview here.

 

Hermida states that social media is all about social capital.

“We want to have shared identity: ‘I’m sending you this video because we can find it funny together.’ That strengthens our social bonds. You’re confirming that yes, you’re like me.”

To add to what Hermida said, it’s not how some people interpret racist and sexist behavior but how politicians react to them. Is more racism and Islamophobia on social media a cue for them to be xenophobic?

Another interesting question to ask is what narratives are coming out of social media. Who has the authority and power to determine which of them will become the standard?

If guerrilla warfare showed that a small well-organized group can defeat vastly outnumbered armies like we saw in Czarist Russia, Cuba, Nicaragua and elsewhere, can the same happen on social media? Is social media a good platform to spark a revolution as we saw in the Arab Spring with Tweeter? Are global surveillance groups like the NSA and GCHQ invincible? What has Edward Snowden showed showed by unmasking them?

Is the anti-immigration movement in Finland, spearheaded by groups like the Perussuomalaiset,* Suomen Sisu, an extremist association, and others, good examples that a minority can hold hostage the silence of politicians and society at large?

Was the PS election victory of 2011 caused by and large by social media and our reaction to it?

All questions and something to think about.

 

* 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.Thank you Pia Grochowski for the heads up! 

How to tell a Finnish politician that he or she sounds racist

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The atmosphere for migrants and minorities in Finland is going to get worse as parliamentary elections near in April 2015. Two recent cases, Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Tom Packalén and National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma, reinforce that matters are going to get worse before they improve. A good way to uncover these opportunistic politicians’ motives and statements that sound and look racist is their pattern. 

Sensible people condemn violence but what about if politicians spread suspicion and lies about migrants and minorities that are not true. As a result of their statements, which raise passions,  society and some people become hostile, even violent, towards migrants and minorities?

The only service that Packalén and Kauma have done for Finland by their lowly comments is to show us that there is a racism problem in this country and that we must find ways to deal with it. Finland has the means to put prejudice and discrimination on the defensive but does it have the will?

Politicians like Packalén and Kauma and the silence of the political parties suggest that there is very little will at present.

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PS MP Tom Packalén on A-studio Friday with a poker smile and no facts to backup his claims. See program here.

 

When debating about intolerance with a person who sounds racist, the last thing you want to do is accept an invitation to discuss such a topic on his or her terms. In order to avoid such a mistake, one has to separate two matters: the person and what was said.

We don’t know if Packalén and Kauma are racists but that’s not the point. The point is what they said and wrote.

Here’s a good video by Jay Smooth on how to tell someone they sound racist below.

Is what Packalén wrote racist? Certainly it sounded pretty racist. Is he a racist? Not interested in discussing that point because that’s not the issue. It’s what he wrote.

What did he write?

He claimed that only migrant gangs are terrorizing and beating white Finns in Helsinki.  One of these victims was 10 years old child. The PS MP claimed that he had information from the police that some gang members were racist because they wanted to hurt white Finns.

Police Superintendent Tuomo Lotta flatly denies Packalén’s claims about the gang members’ racist motives.

Just like Kauma pictured Finnish mothers as responsible victims because they bought used baby carriages, Pakalén is doing the same thing by pitting migrants against white Finns.

We have found out now that these so-called migrant gangs comprise of white Finns that Packalén forgot to mention.

Kauma is another sad example. She used the same strategy as Pakclén. She made an incredible claim that migrant women buy new baby carriages with social aid while Finnish mothers buy used baby carriages.

She was never able to back up her claim and even shown by social workers that what she said just isn’t true.

Here is the pattern of how statements that sound racist are made:

  • Make an outrageous statement no matter if it is a lie;
  • Your aim is to get media attention;
  • Even if experts and the media prove what you say is wrong, stay calm and deny it;
  • Those who believe what you said because there is some conspiracy theory will love you and probably vote for you in the next elections;
  • Nothing will happen to you because everyone will eventually forget the incident.

This same method that Pakclén and Kauma used to get attention was used in England by the xenophobic National Front in the 1980s.

Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech is a case in point. The politician claimed in 1968, when more Commonwealth migrants were moving to the United Kingdom, that it would be a question of time when England’s rivers will end up ‘foaming with much blood.’

Those ‘rivers of blood’ he warned us of never happened but the media sure loved it.

Even if many will forget what Packalén and Kauma said, Migrant Tales won’t.

* 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.