The editorial below by the Alabama-based Democrat-Reporter, calling on the Ku Klux Klan “to ride again” and lynch Democrats, was not published in the last century but in 2019. This editorial is a good example that the United States is a racist country and has done too little to eradicate this social ill.
It is the same story in Europe, which explains why populist far-right parties are on the rise and gaining support.
The United States had a Civil Rights Movement (1955-68) and Europe World War 2 (1939-45). In both cases, there was a lack of resolve to do away with racism and its poison. Governments and school boards searched instead for the status quo. We are paying today a high price for our mistake.
This is understandable because those who held power benefited from the privileges that racism bestows on them.
Source: Montgomery Advertiser.
Do we have similar examples in Europe and Finland?
European examples of the latter would be Marine Le Pen of France, Holland’s Gert Wilders, Viktor Orbán and many others. In Finland, two candidates that come to mind are Jussi Halla-aho and Laura Huhtsaari of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party.
But there are others like Amon Rautiainen of the PS, who in 2012 said that “Muslims should be boiled alive.” Does anyone remember Mertsu Merivirta, another PS politician from Kotka?
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.