Category: Enrique

How many types of racists are there in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I read an interesting blog entry by Julian Abagond that highlights three types of racists in the United States: white bigots, white implicit racists and whites with integrity. How many types of racists are there in Finland? 

When studying racism in this country or in other parts of Europe, denial is the most incriminating evidence that a racist leaves behind. The culprit is usually exposed by denying that a problem exists or by affirming that “I am not racist but…”

Writes Abagond:  “Racism is something you have to unlearn on purpose. Not by trying to not see color but, as a first step, by understanding how racism works and how it has affected you.”

Racism has impacted Finland in many negative ways. It has been costly and brought great hardships on us. Even today it continues to affect us adversely.

Consider the following predicament: We need to attract skilled labor and foreign investment but the third-largest party in Finland is anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam.

Abagond speaks of three types of racists in the United States. I’d claim that there are four in Finland (if Abagond’s criteria were used, they would be divided in the following manner):

  1. The so-called working-class bigots (5%) are your typical skinheads. Their behavior and racism shocks most Finns. Some politicians like James Hirvisaari fall into this category.
  2. Bigots with education and steady jobs (45%) are people who would never act like working-class bigots but agree in principle with their views. Their knowledge of other groups like Africans is strongly entrenched in nineteenth-century racism and social constructs like Finnish nationalism.  Jussi Halla-aho, Wille Rydman, Paavo Väyrynen, Päivi Räsänen are some examples.
  3. White implicit racists (45%) are those who don’t fall in the latter two categories. They may claim they are against racism but their actions suggest the contrary. They strongly believe in religious freedom but would be the first ones – in private – to oppose the building of a Mosque in their neighborhood or city.  Many John Does are typical white implicit racists.
  4. Finns with integrity (5%) are those who have started to study their own racism and taken the first step to put it under control.

 

 

How to challenge a social ill like racism in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The rise of an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) in last year’s elections is not the most incriminating proof that racism is an issue in this country, but official denials that such a problem exists at all in Finland. What must we do as a society to effectively challenge such a social ill?

Denials by groups like the police that ethnic profiling ever takes place in Finland are highly revealing. The icing on the cake of ethnic profiling was given in April by Christian Democrat (KD)  Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, who approved spot checks of foreigners by the police since they are an effective way to clamp down on undocumented immigrants.

Finnish children were taught at schools that “n”stands for the n-word and that such people like to eat bananas. Schools have been an important breeding ground for racism in Finland. Source: Ydinjate.org.

No matter how much we want to deny that racism isn’t an issue in our society and  sweep the problem under the rug, knowing who is denying it reveals a lot about the extent of the issue. Why would a white Finn see racism as an immediate threat? Why would a black person differ in opinion?

While justifying spot checks of foreigners, Räsänen gives us a glimpse of  her colorblind racism:  “The vast majority of foreigners look just like the natives, so it’s not even a very sensible way to supervise aliens.”

The question we should ask her after such a statement is what about those that don’t look like white Finns.

The views of an important public figure like Räsänen reveal how seriously the authorities treat, or how their prejudices fuel, an issue like racism. True, they may see it as a problem but they won’t invest a lot of resources to tackle it.

In many respects, anti-racism legislation should be seen in the same light as the role that anti-trust regulation plays in the business community. The lack of competition in Finland is one factor that fuels inefficiency and abuse by certain businesses.  It explains, in part, why Finland is the most expensive country in the eurozone.

In the same way, racism is abuse by a stronger group over weaker ones.

What should we do about tackling racism in Finland?

The best thing we can do is acknowledge the problem and challenge it. The first crucial step must come from the immigrant and visible minority community, which will not accept living in a society where racism and abuse are the rule. Their motive for raising their voices will be to make Finland a better place to live for their children and future generations.

Taking into account that we need skilled labor in this country to replace our ever-growing army of pensioners, accepting the status quo and being hostile to certain immigrant groups is like shooting ourselves in the leg.

The most important matter to keep in mind is that our reaction to racism must be first and foremost a reaction.

 

 

 

Far-right violence spreads across Europe – what about Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As the euro financial crisis deepens so does the rise of far-right violence across Europe, according to a report by the Institute of Race Relations. Finland stands out as one of the 100 cases documented by the report. It states that academics studying immigration in this country are forced to withdraw from public discussion rather than face intimidation and threats to their families.

Migrant Tales has been as well the focus of attacks, death threats and intimidation.

The report, Pedlars of Hate: the violent impact of the European far Right, documents the cold-blooded shooting of a Moroccan during Black February as a clear warning sign for Finland.

The far right has found a good platform in the PS. 

The report states on page 8: “The Satakunta Police Department is investigating  whether Facebook comments made by a [former] True Finns [Perussuomalaiset] elected councillor in Köyliö constitute incitement to racial hatred. After a 21-year-old Moroccan man was  shot dead in Oulu in March [see page 15], Tommi Rautio posted that the murderer should be given a medal because there is ‘a war going on and in every war decorations are handed out.'”

While there are some encouraging signs that politicians and the media see PS politicians like Jussi Halla-aho and his Suomen Sisu followers as extremists, it’s still not too late to defeat the far-right menace that has attacked Finland.

How much of a threat is the far right in Finland? Are matters going to get far worse before they improve?

Migrant Tales March 15, 2012: Finland’s darkest period 2011-15

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In the future, when Finnish historians of different ethnic backgrounds look at the present parliamentary term 2011-15,  they will most likely conclude that it was the darkest period for Finland and immigrants in the new century.  A prelude to this sombre period were  the municipal election of 2008 and how it reflected a shift in the national mood. 

It would be naive, even an exercise in self-deceit, to claim that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party isn’t one  obvious culprit. The municipal elections of 2008 and 2003, when PS MP Tony Halme was elected to parliament,  speak volumes about how racism and xenophobia started to lift their heads in this country.

Despite being one of the worst periods in our recent history, where some groups and politicians aim to make racism and xenophobia as normal and acceptable as karjalanpiirakka, it has brought out the best in some of us. For some, like Migrant Tales, it has been a clarion call.

If this period has brought out the best in some of us, it has brought out the worst as well.

Finland’s anti-immigration groups like to feed the public red herrings.

Some regretful examples come form of silence and lack of leadership by the Finnish media and some politicians. The success of the PS in the April elections is proof of the inarticulateness, complacency and even the flirting of these two groups with anti-immigration parties and groups.

The PS has provided us with monthly scandals beginning with MP Teuvo Hakkarainen’s first day in parliament to the recent suggestion by councilman Tommi Rautio  to give a medal to a cold-blooded killer.

A word of advice to anti-immigration extremists: Everything you write will come under scrutiny by future generations. Those future generations, which will be made up of Finnish researchers from different ethnic backgrounds, will highlight the racism and xenophobia that inflicted part of our society today.

When they give their lectures at our universities on ethnic studies or history, they will show to their students the shameful evidence left in the writings of numerous anti-immigration politicians like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho and his Suomen Sisu crowd, for example.

Time will increase the shamefulness of these racist writings. What is written today by some of these racists will look eerily similar to what some groups wrote about blacks during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Recognizing this will be the first important step in liberating our society from the illness that has afflicted it.

 

 

 

Have the PS and MP Tossavainen of Finland ever heard of the Non-Discrimination Act?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If the future of Finland were ever left to the populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, it’s quite certain that this country would be doomed. The ones that would suffer the most would be immigrants and visible minorities. Outright discrimination would be  the rule.

The PS, who should know better, sent a formal request to the council of state last week asking whether it was possible to only hire Finnish workers to refurbish its recently acquired party headquarters in Helsinki.

In a blog entry on Uusi Suomi, Migrant Tales answered a question that the PS asked the council of state in a blog entry: Is it discrimination only to hire Finnish workers?

We answered PS MP Anssi Joutsenlahti’s question with a flat yes. Thanks to JusticeDemon’s help, we were able to show to the PS MP which part of the Non-Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of nationality.

Paragraph 1 of subsection 1 of section 2: “This Act applies to both public and private activities in the following contexts: 1) conditions for access to self-employment or means of livelihood, and support for business activities.”

For some reason the PS, the country’s third-largest party in parliament with 39 seats, does not – or does not want to – get it.

Instead of engaging in a meaningful debate about discrimination in Finland, PS MP Reijo Tossavainen writes the following comment in a Migrant Tales’ posting on Uusi Suomi: “This blog entry’s headline [Is it discrimination to only hire Finnish workers? Certainly!]  is  frankly shocking.Are Finnish labor, Finnish entrepreneurship, and Finnish identity in general something marginal in Finland?”

PS MP Reijo Tossavainen appears to have never heard of the Non-Discrimination Act.

Tossavainen even takes a below-the-belt hit at Migrant Tales in another comment. My mother is Finnish, I am a Finnish citizen and have lived in this country for 33 years.

“In a blog entry on Uusi Suomi two foreigners [Farzad Moghaddam pour and I] who live in Finland write about hiring only Finnish workers [to refurbish] the party’s headquarters. Their writings and comments make for uncomfortable reading because they respect too little Finland and Finnish identity. But what is even more shocking is to see that there are a lot of native Finns who think like them.”

Just because a populist politician has probably never read the Non-Discrimination Act in his life, doesn’t give him the right to erroneously claim that I don’t respect Finland or Finnish identity. It is an insult like many others that have come to characterize the PS after last year’s elections.

The PS are a threat to Finland, but especially to immigrants, visible minorities and expat Finns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suomalaisia ei saa syrjiä (mutta toisia ryhmiä saa?)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Kansanedustaja Reijo Tossavaisen viimeisin blogi kirjoitus, Suomalaisia ei saa syrjiä, on hyvä esimerkki siitä mitä on pahasti vialla perussuomalaisissa ja kuinka suppea ja syrjivä on heidän käsitys suomalaisuudesta. 

Tossavaisen tieto Suomen historiasta on hyvin valikoiva. Hän puhuu kuinka karjalaiset sijoitettiin Suomeen jatkosodan jälkeen toista kertaa. Ruusuisesta kuvasta huolimatta, karjalaisten vastanotto oli monesti vihamielinen. Samaa suhtautuminen nähdään tänään maahanmuuttajia ja heidän lapsiansa kohtaan.

On valitettava, että kansanedustaja Tossavainen unohtaa, että Suomesta lähti 1860-1999  yli 1,2 miljoona suomalaista siirtolaisia etupäässä Pohjois-Amerikkaan ja Ruotsiin. Suomessa asuu yhä pieni mutta kasvava maahanmuuttaja yhteisö. Tämä tarkoittaa, että meillä on jo kymmeniä tuhansia suomalaisia joilla on kansainvälisiä taustoja.

Mitä perussuomalaiset oikeasti tarkoittavat kun he puhuvat ”suomalaisuuden, suomalaisen työn ja suomalaisten yrittämisen arvostaminen?” Minulle suomalaisuus on paljon laajempi, kansainvälisempi ja monipuolisempi käsite ottaen huomioon historiamme. Pääasiassa yhteiskuntamme on hyväksyvä toisia kohtaan, eikä torjuva.

Tossavainan puhuu kuitenkin totta: Suomalaisia ei saa syrjiä – muttei toisia ryhmiä myöskään.

Abagond: Kumbaya anti-racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I dedicate Abagond’s most recent blog entry to the Finnish media.

Comment:  I met a journalist from a local paper and we spoke about racism in Finland. He said that the daily had a policy of not reporting too many racism cases in the city because it would be acknowledging the problem. 

The reasoning behind the journalist’s words are pretty far-fetched:  If we don’t hear about racism cases in our society it means that it isn’t a problem. By not reporting too many racism cases we ensure that we won’t become racists.

If there is a threat that is impoverishing our society today, that danger is racism. 

Taking into account our aging workforce and our ever-growing army of pensioners, Finland needs racism like a hole in the head.  

It’s crucial that we debate this social ill openly.  

____

Julian Abagond

Kumbaya anti-racism (c. 1970- ) is where racism is fought by not talking about race, by not seeing people’s skin colour, by not saying certain words or expressing certain thoughts out loud that are politically incorrect.

People often quote Martin Luther King, Jr in support:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

And sometimes they even quote Morgan Freeman, who informed Mike Wallace in 2005 that the way to get rid of racism is to – “Stop talking about it.”

To talk about race, like this blog does, is therefore “divisive”, it keeps racism alive, it is unenlightened, it spreads hatred.

So now most White Americans keep their children from becoming racist by not talking about racism!

It might sound good – except it does not work.

Instead of wiping out racism it has replaced one sort of racism – the open hatred of Jim Crow racism – with another – the silent, subtle contempt of colour-blind racism.

Martin Luther King said something else:

When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites…

After 40 years Kumbaya anti-racist thinking in America:

  • the black unemployment rate stood at 2.1 times the white rate;
  • black babies are 2.6 times more likely to die than white babies.

It also goes against common sense:

What if we applied the same philosophy to other forms of marginalization:

Sexism: I do not see you as a woman, I see you as a person.

Classism: Once we stop seeing people as rich or poor everyone will have the same amount of money.

Anti-Semitism: Talking about the Holocaust spreads hatred and keeps anti-Semitism alive.

In practice the Kumbaya approach is used to silence talk about white racism. So instead of questioning white racism and helping to tear it down, it keeps that racism in place, untouched.

For whites that means they get to keep all the advantages of being white in a white racist society while at the same time sounding anti-racist. At least to themselves. It is yet another morally broken piece of white racist thinking. It is anti-racist in form not function.

For people of colour, the Kumbaya approach leaves them wide open to internalized racism – to self-hatred and self-doubt. It leads them into trying to “transcend” race, to be “American” or “Christian” or “universal” or “just me” – or even an honorary white. But trying to “transcend” race in America means, in effect, trying to be white. As if there is something wrong with being black or Asian or Chicano.

Martin Luther King:

We must stand up and say, “I’m black and I’m beautiful,” and this self-affirmation is the black man’s need, made compelling by the white man’s crimes against him.

Read original story her.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

What is the fine line that separates Anders Breivik and PS MP Olli Immonen?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This week we heard Anders Breivik’s closing statements in his defense for killing 77 innocent victims. In his final tirade of how multiculturalism is responsible for fuelling the Islamization of Europe, the mass killer showed no remorse.

“The attacks on July 22 were preventive attacks to defend the indigenous Norwegian people,” he said. “I therefore demand to be acquitted.”

In a recent column, Perussuomalaiset party MP Olli Immonen writes at the same time as the Breivik trial is ongoing:  “…it is clear that current developments [concerning Islamization] will lead to a situation where our Western way of life in Finland and elsewhere in Europe will be threatened. The confrontation between Islamic and Western culture is one of the megatrends of this century.”

Shivers went up my spine when I read both quotes. While they convey the same message, there is a  difference: Breivik went on a killing rampage while Immonen didn’t.

The Norwegian mass killer uses Islamization to justify what he did; Immonen uses the same arguments but to attract media attention and, crucial to his political career, future votes. One is being tried in a courtroom for mass murder while the other is in parliament spreading Breivik’s Counter-Jihadist views.

In many respects, the debate revolving around whether Breivik is insane or not when he carried out the killings speaks volumes about how we want to continue seeing ourselves as a people and society irrespective of 22/7.

The question is an exceptionally tough one: Are Breivik’s thoughts “sane” but what he did “insane?” In other words, is it ok to spread hatred, racism and prejudice of other groups as long as you don’t take the law in your hands and start killing people?

If Breivik were Immonen and Immonen, Breivik, the verdict would be clear: Breivik would be “sane” and Immonen “insane.”

In light of what happened, we should ask some serious questions. One of these is what kind of society do we want to live in. Is it one where we consider racism “sane” but becomes “insane” if you are a racist that murders other people? Or one where all forms of racism and prejudice by anyone or any group are unacceptable?

Shouldn’t both cases, the sane and the insane racist, be equally condemned by society?

 

The PS asks if it can openly discriminate against immigrants and visible minorities in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A group of Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs, including its chairman Timo Soini, have formally asked the council of state whether they can only hire Finnish workers to refurbish its recently acquired 1.7-million-euro headquarters in Helsinki. Why should the PS limit itself to only hiring Finnish workers?  Why not make sure that 100% of the materials used are Finnish as well.

What does the PS mean by Finnish workers? Would black Finns do? What about Muslim Finns? Is it ok if you are a naturalized Finn?

JusticeDemon answers the PS’ question whether the party can openly discriminate against immigrants and visible minorities: “For the record, any fool can see plainly that business conditions fall within the scope of the Non-Discrimination Act(section 2, subsection 1, paragraph 1), and that the Act prohibits discrimination on grounds of nationality (section 6).”

The fact that the PS wants to throw such a loaded question to the government reveals how desperate Soini and his party are. The latest publicity stunt by the party has a clear aim: bolster its sagging popularity and the municipal elections of October.

Recent polls suggest that the PS may suffer a big setback in the next elections. Veteran PS politician, Raimo Vistbacka, didn’t rule out in April the PS suffering a “catastrophic election result” sometime in the future.

Using racism and xenophobia to score political points does not only reveal cowardice, they have been a double-edged sword for the party. Jussi Halla-aho’s scandalous resignation from the administration committee is one of many examples.

Hiring people on the basis of national background is outright discrimination.

We would think that the country’s  third-largest party in parliament would know this fact.

 

 

Office of the Prosecutor General will not take action against Eronen’s blog entry on “armbands”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) will not take any action against Helena Eronen concerning a blog entry she published in April suggesting that immigrants should start wearing armbands to help police track down suspected criminals, according to Helsingin Sanomat. While no charges will be brought against Perussuomalaiset (PS)  MP James Hirvisaari’s aide, it doesn’t mean what she did was acceptable.

Mika Illman of the OPG said that Eronen’s blog entry is protected by freedom of speech laws irrespective if it insulted some national groups.

Eronen’s blog entry, which was reported by the Russian and Swedish media, forced Hirvisaari to be suspended from the PS parliamentary group for five months after he refused to sack her.

Some Finns, especially the PS, believe that it is perfectly fine to say anything they wish about immigrants and visible minorities. Apart from revealing their ignorance, it shows as well that they are seriously challenged when it comes to social graces.

Considering that certain immigrant groups in Finland are struggling to survive in a country where unemployment for non-Finns is three-times higher than the national average, one should ask how blog entries like Eronen’s help build a better society for all those that live here.

Just because no action was taken against Eronen, it doesn’t mean what she wrote was right.

Our freedom of speech laws permit us to make a horse’s ass of ourselves in public if we wish.