Comment: A poll published Saturday by Helsingin Sanomat, the country’s leading daily, reveals that two thirds of Finns believe that racism appears in Finland a lot or very much. Despite this view, only a minority of those polled felt that they held such attitudes towards people from other cultures.
Somalians, Muslims and the Romany minority, were the most disliked by those polled and especially by supporters of the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party. Contrarily, the most favored groups were Chinese, Estonians, English, Swedes and Saami.
What does this poll tell us? It reinforces the attitudes that some Finns have with respect to certain groups. It tells us that people like Somalians, Muslims and the Romany minority have a difficult struggle ahead of them in the country to become accepted.
Negative attitudes in the poll expose the ignorance of some Finns. One of the favorite arguments of the far right about Muslims, for example, is that they are so different from us that they will never adapt. This permits people to hold hostile and racist attitudes towards certain groups.
Twenty-nine percent of those interviewed and a high 51% of PS supporters believe that some immigrant groups of will never adapt to modern societies like Finland.
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Suomi on vähintäänkin melko rasistinen maa, ajattelee enemmistö suomalaisista. Kaksi kolmasosaa kansasta ajattelee, että Suomessa ilmenee rasismia paljon tai melko paljon. Siitä huolimatta omassa itsessään rasismia tunnistaa tai tunnustaa paljon vain kaksi prosenttia ja melko paljon kaksitoista prosenttia.
“Kansasta 29 prosenttia ja perussuomalaisten kannattajista 51 prosenttia allekirjoittaa täysin tai osittain ajatuksen, että “joihinkin rotuihin kuuluvat ihmiset eivät kerta kaikkiaan sovi asumaan moderniin yhteiskuntaan”.”
Which are these “races” and should we isolate them in jungles or what? Shocking.
The only good thing about this survey is that some of the people who are racist are willing to admit that they are racist. Sadly enough, it might also be a sign of the fact that some people don’t consider it wrong to be a racist.
Seppo
I’m not sure that it is. Another finding was that:
This strongly suggests that people are loath to admit their own racism, while openly expressing racist sentiments. In other words, it’s a matter of saying: “I’m no racist, but these warmongering pinkskins are incapable of peaceful coexistence.”