Brown is beautiful just like black and white are beautiful, right? Add to the latter equation power and privilege and a more sinister picture emerges: White is beautiful but brown and black aren’t.
Finland is such a racialized country and so conscious of its whiteness that it only sees people through a very narrow lens: white Finns or non-white Finns.
Whiteness is such a powerful matter in Finland that some non-white children learn not stay under the sun too long for fear that their skin won’t become too tanned.
Some, like Rosa Emilia Clay, Finland’s first African-born naturalized Finn and primary school teacher, kept her African background a secret from her children.
Clay’s granddaughter, Normalee Johnsson, wrote in a letter in 2009 that was partly published in Helsingin Sanomat:
“When mother died, we learned her secret: we had African blood in our veins! Finally we understood why mother always wore a bonnet and long sleeves in the summer. What we could not understand is why she kept our African, Arab, and English heritage a secret. For a while it was shocking that I didn’t know who I really was.”
Those who know a little about Clay’s life in Finland, are well aware of the racism she faced and suffered.
Like hundreds of thousands of other Finns, Clay emigrated to the United States in 1904.
She never returned to Finland.
Various shades of brown. Source: Citizen by Chance
White Finnish privilege #43
Racism and white privilege are such powerful forces that some people spend their lives passing as white, according to a story in the Washington Post.
Just like in Clay hid her ethnicity from her children, the question is why do some want to hide their ethnicity? Why do some minority teenagers want to stay away from the sun so their skin won’t get too tanned?
The answer: white power, which is relentless and destructive to non-white people.
See also:
- Defining white Finnish privilege #1: I have it and you don’t
- Defining white Finnish privilege #2: Third culture children versus “pupil with immigrant background”
- Defining white Finnish privilege #3 No history, no doctrine, no heroes and no martyrs
- Defining white Finnish privilege #4 Holding the short end of the stick
- Defining white Finnish privilege #5 It’s ok to be a racist
- Defining white Finnish privilege #6 Not having a voice and the media
- Defining white Finnish privilege #7 A definitive guide
- Defining white Finnish privilege #8 Underrated and less intelligent
- Defining white Finnish privilege #9 Mohammad Ali’s insight
- Defining white Finnish privilege #10 I can victimize and make up any story I like about migrants because I’m white
- Defining white Finnish privilege #11: Case Teuvo Hakkarainen
- Defining white Finnish privilege #12: Case Tom Packalén
- Defining white Finnish privilege #13: Case Matti Putkonen
- Defining white Finnish privilege #14: Losing sight of the real issue
- Defining white Finnish privilege #15: Case Halla-ago on the PS
- Defining white Finnish privilege #16: Rosa Emilia Clay and my history versus yours
- Defining white Finnish privilege #17: The Perussuomalaiset and our civil rights
- Defining white Finnish privilege #18: Labeling others according to your prejudice
- Defining white Finnish privilege #19: My rape statistics about your group
- Defining white Finnish privilege #20: Labeling Others to strengthen “us” and “them.”
- Defining white Finnish privilege #21: Who can be a Finn?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #22: From racist, fascist to politician without memory
- Defining white Finnish privilege #23: Greater police powers to monitor migrants and minorities
- Defining white Finnish privilege #24: Becoming a heartless accomplice in wars and people’s suffering
- Defining white Finnish privilege #25: This land is my land, this isn’t your land
- Defining white Finnish privilege #26: Are you an ethnic Finn?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #27: White versus Other media
- Defining white Finnish privilege #28: Are you an ethnic Finn (Part 2)?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine
- White Finnish privilege #30: Whitewashing and racializing the news
- White Finnish privilege #31: The Soldiers of Odin and the Finnish media
- White Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police and “them”
- White Finnish privilege #33: Appropriating our narrative to maintain the status quo, amass more power and privilege
- White Finnish privilege #34: Building a political career on privilege and nativist nationalism
- White Finnish privilege #35: Case Sampo Terho and the ministry of (dis)culture
- White Finnish privilege #36: Hate speech and censorship
- White Finnish privilege #37: The master of near-everything
- Defining white Finnish privilege #38: Cultural appropriation and racism are quaint discussion topics between white Finns
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #39: The Hollywood ending of racism that will never happen in Finland
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #40: To whitewash or to disenfranchise
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #41: An Islamophobic politician and gender equality
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #42: Labeling and shaming
As a guy who is in winter practically transparent so you cant get whiter than that and in summer im second hand negro because i do tan a lot. In summer im tan as fuck and i have never heard negative comment because of my tan or tan of anyone.
Never seen or heard anyone to talk badly on normal tan, spray stuff and artificial stuff get their share but normal…
you are again telling us how US worked 100 years ago and tell that its somehow finns fault…
My tan is way over middle east but not africa. Deep brown.