Days later,representatives of the Somali community come out and state that the tragic deaths of Somali boys should not be politicized. What on earth does the Finnish media, like Yle, wants to frame and message when they state that those who died of drowning were of Somali backgrounds?
It took several days for Yle to publish the Somali community’s concern about the harmful labeling.
Abdirazak Sugulle Mohamed, a representative of the Uusimaa Mosque Association, hopes that decision-makers will take a responsible approach to the issue. He believes that swimming skills should also be discussed in general in Finland, not just for Somalis or so-called people of foreign background.
“We shouldn’t just talk about the swimming skills of immigrants or Somalis,” he said.
But one could take this matter a big further and ask what the purpose of singling out people of color is? Is it to reinforce our racism and show falsely that white Finns are superior swimmers? Probably the most striking matter it reveals is the mainstream media’s racism problem.
Moreover, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily, has not published a word about how the media labels minorities. They did, however, publish an article about how Muslim women go to swimming school. It was like a cultural peep show.
