Perussuomalaiset toivottivat 6.12. kaikille “suomalaisille” hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää. Noin kaksi vuottaa sitten, Johannes Sipola perussuomalaisista toivosi kaikille “valkoisille iseille” hyvää isänpäivää.
Onko näissä kahdessa toivomuksissa eroa?
Ei ole, koska ne ovat tarkoitettu valkoiselle suomalaisille, ei vähemmistölle, eli vaikkapa ruskeille suomalaisille. Heidän viestinsä on selvää: itsenäisyysjuhla kuuluu vain valkoisille suomalaisille.
Jos kysyt perussuomalaisista, onko tämä rasistista, he varmasti kysyvät mitä on rasismia.
A neo-Nazi online publication called Partisaani is a good example of how far-right groups feed and fool readers. After close examination, the Partisaani publication’s layout has a striking similarity to Yle’s, the Finnish Broadcasting Company website.
Even the typeset and layout of the stories are a copy of Yle.
Check the two examples below. The only way you distinguish them is by the stories.
After watching a nailbiter between Argentina and Australia in the Tri-Nations Rugby Championships, the 15-15 draw turned into a sour taste in my mouth when Australian rugby captain Michael Hooper said after the game that “the Argies are a tough cookie to crack.”
Was this racist term intentional or unintentional? Is Hooper a sore loser or just plain ignorant?
How many English cricket players would state after a match against Pakistan that “the Pakis are a tough cookie to crack?”
Let’s make one thing crystal clear: The term “Argie” is a slur created during the Falklands-Malvinas war. It’s meaning is to demean in a racist manner.
All Argentineans should protest forcefully for Hooper using this racist term.
Australian rugby captain Michael Hooper. Source: Reuters.
Watching the assault on democratic institutions in the United States, Hungary, Poland, and other countries, one wonders what Finnish voters see in its own Trump- and Orbán-spirited Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party.
In Yle’s latest opinion poll published Thursday, the PS took first place by a hair from the Social Democrats (SDP), leading since May.
So what are we supposed to make out of the latest opinion poll?
The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) strategy to flirt with the PS has turned out a failure. Kokoomus retreated by 0.7% to 15.9% and is now far behind the PS and SDP.
This has been proven repeatedly: Don’t try to imitate the PS’ Islamophobic message. Why would voters choose a lighter version of the PS if they can vote for the real thing?
SAD BUT TRUE: AROUND 18% OF FINNISH VOTERS BACK A TRUMP-SPIRITED PARTY IN FINLAND DESPITE ITS COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM, GOOD EDUCATION SYSTEM, AND HIGH SCORES IN THE PRESS FREEDOM INDEX.
The good news?
If the PS win the next parliamentary election in 2023, they will have to compromise and work with other parties to govern.
This isn’t a consolation but a warning that our democratic system may also be in peril.
It isn’t difficult to conclude that many of the stories of how the media frames non-white Finns proves over and over again that they are part of Finland’s racism problem.
The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) published Thursday its findings of a comprehensive study on native-born Finnish children with one or two foreign-born parents and how well they fared at school compared with white Finnish children.
Am I happy about the findings of the THL study?
THL researcher Lotta Haikkola said: “It’s important to note that the findings [of the study] are not directly related to the parents’ country of birth, but could be a consequence of a number of other factors. In light of the findings of the study, it is especially important to ask if children get enough support [at school] irrespective of their parents’ language and cultural background.”
Despite the findings, Yle labels those children with one of two foreign parents suffer from poor grades, have more mental problems and are more sustpible to child custody.
The study showed as well that if both of the parents are born abroad, the child is less prone to commit a crime.
While framing native Finnish-born “people of foreign background”as dark-skinned, we get the impression that such people are from Africa and the Middle East, even if the majority of migrants that live in Finland are white and from Europe. Sources: Yle (left), Yle right.
The pictures used for the story, especiall the Finnish-langauge news, frames the problem as an issue facing Muslims, people of color and other visible minorities.
As the study points out, racism is another factor that impacted those interviewed in the study.
If you had the opportunity to listen inside the brain of a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politician, you’d probably hear the following word: migrants, maahanmuuttajat, migrants, maahanmuuttajat…
The head of the PS parliamentary group, Ville Tavio, regurgetates that obsessive word in countless tweets and statements.
Tavio tweets: “Finnish human rights are threatened as a result of massive asylum-seeker policies. Such migration should be kept in check, so it isn’t a threat to the country’s economy, security, and national culture.”
Tavio, who has before mentioned his admiration of France’s National Rally far-right head Marine Le Pen, claims that some conspiracy permits “massive” asylum seekers to enter Finland.
I understand that Tavio does not wake up in the morning and looks in the mirror, whispering to himself that I am such a racist.
Or does an Islamophobic mindset make people delusional? They attract voters with their exaggerations and lies and get hooked to power like junkies.
According to the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), there were 4,550 asylum seekers in 2019, of which 2,467 were granted residence permits. Where is the massive amount of asylum seekers you speak of Tavio?
The PS believe that they can get away by lambasting migrants, especially Muslims and people of color, without any consequences.
A party like the PS that bases 90% of its politics on Islamophobia and Afrophobia cannot tap from the well of hatred and discord forever. One day that well will dry out.
No matter how much politicians like Tavio and his band of Islamophobes kick and bitch, we are here to stay.
We read about Joy Aalto, a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party member, who gave us 1 + 1 = 2 advice on becoming a Finn. If such a simplistic recipe for integration – learn Finnish and get a job – worked for her, that is fine, although I have my doubts.
Before reading on, this post is not against women from the Far East but wants to raise a question: Why does the PS believe that such women – not men – are acceptable foreigners?
Why don’t we see the PS empowering Somali and Muslim women?
Joh Aalto states that she became a Finn by learning the langauge and getting a job.
Let’s hope that Joy Aalto will not turn into a Helena Puustinen or house the opinions of former Helsinki deputy councilperson Belle Sene Xia, who wished death to members of the Falun Dafa religious sect.
So what did Helena Puustinen post?
Puustinen said that she would like to lock up Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government in Auschwitz and devise “a better plan than Hitler” to, I suspect, exterminate the ministers of her cabinet.
Puustinen’s hostile rant did not spare asylum seekers. Dropping atomic bombs on them would do the job.
Puustinen in a picture with a Waffen SS of Holland ad asking people to join in the fight against Bolshevism.
And who could forget Belle Selene Xia, who got sacked from the Helsinki PS for wishing that they kill members of the Falun Dafa religious sect?
Before getting the boot, Helsinki PS municipal candidate Belle Selene Xia didn’t consider her former party racist or against migrants.
“They’re only people’s stereotypes against the Perussuomalaiset,” she said. “The Perussuomalaiset are strongly against racism. Moreover, the PS is in favor of labor immigration.”
Surprisingly, she changed her opinion after getting sacked from the Helsinki chapter of the party.
She then said that her foreign background played a role in her sacking.
Having taught many students about Finnish society for many years, two matters surprise me about this teaching line: Are the people giving these courses qualified and simple, 1 + 1 = 2, explanations to a complex matter as adaption.
If the integration model is overly simplistic, treat it with tweezers because its conclusions are suspect. Integration, adaption, or properly inclusion is a complex matter.
During my years as a teacher of these courses, I have requested material taught by other teachers. Not one white Finnish teacher has, however, has shared with me the material they teach newcomers about Finland.
I get the impression that the only requirement to teach newcomers about Finnish society is that you are a white Finn with some teaching background. Every white Finn knows what our culture is, right?
Telling newcomers about our society riddled with exceptionalism, ethnocentricm and even racism partly explain why, I suspect, that the majority of these people have no idea what kotoutuminen means or implies.
If you want an example of a 1 + 1 = 2 integration model, check out Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Kristian Sheikki Laakso’s tweet below, who affirms this is how you become a part of Finnish society.
Joy Aalto, who is a candidate for the upcoming municipal election in April for a party known for its hostile Islamophobic rants, gives us her recipe for integration:
Language and how people are labeled are some of the reasons why racism and anti-immigration politicians have exerted power on the national debate on our ever-growing cultural diversity. If we did away with these toxic terms, which label people as eternal outsiders, matters would change radically.
First and foremost in the debate, we should dispense with words that label and group people as outsiders. By labeling people as outsiders, like the term person with a foreign or migrant background,”
For this reason, we need a bold and innovative approach to how we perceive ourselves as a society and what Finnish identity is. That discussion must happen now.
With all the hate and hidden messages that portray and frame Others in our society, the debate would clean up pretty fast since we would change from referring to people as Finns or as one of us.
If our society is open and encourages equity, the langauge we use to label Others should reflect it.
So, what terms could we use when referring to non-white Finns? The labels they want us to use like AfroFinn, brown Finn, Somali Finn, etc. White Finns should stop placing unilateral ethnic categories on people of different backgrounds.
One way of changing the way we debate difference and cultural diversity is by not using terms that group people as outsiders.
