By Enrqiue Tessieri
If I had to state in a picture and short description who we are and why we do what we do, the picture* below says it eloquently. Apart from being a blog that “aims to be a voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public,” we don’t hide our objection to prejudice and all forms of racism.
For us, racism isn’t only an opinion, but a rude offense and a threat to our society’s values.
You can see it this way…
or the other way…
No matter which way, racism is wrong.
*Thank you Anne Casey for the heads up!
Category: Enrique
Something to discuss about:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=41d_1333370706
Who do YOU think is the racist in this video?
Farang
It’s hard to see if anybody is being racist here, though the young man accuses the ‘burkha’ blokes of being racist. I guess he has his ‘bigotries’ mixed up.
I think it’s pretty clear that he thinks that his religion is being mocked by these men wearing these garments. He’s aggressive, assaults several of the party and is not particularly interested in hearing the reasoning behind the ‘burkha blokes’.
The whole confrontation is testosterone fueled. The ‘Muslim’ man is immediately challenged to tell ‘what race are we being racist against’, and neither side is really practicing any kind of sensible or sensitive communication. I’m not surprised it escalated.
On the whole, I’d say the young Muslim man was overly aggressive and choosing to ‘stand up’ for his faith in a way that will almost certainly be used against him and to denigrate his faith. Not to say he was right to react in that kind of bombastic way, but rather that he didn’t articulate his sense of offense in a way that would actually turn this confrontation into a useful exchange. Are these ‘burkha blokes’ insulting people’s religious sensibilities by wearing this clothing? Probably. But that is not against the law. Was the point to address the rights of women? Maybe. They said it was an experiment, not anything about women’s rights!
So not really a video that would lead to a discussion about racism, but one perhaps about religious sensitivities, about the right to protest and offend, and the right to be offended, and how those rights are seen by the law and how people take the law into their own hands. Not an easy topic, by any means.
Good answer 🙂
Farang, you have to separate racism and religion, alot of people misuse racism these days, originally racism meant someone excluded and discriminated because of the color of his skin, nowadays there is something called age racism etc etc, some the meaning of the word got strecthed wich is to me another concern because the words origin of meaning can be lost, we need to get back to the essence, meaning we have to use to word in it’s right context, i believe religion got nothing to do with racism, it’s got more to do with discrimination and people seem to confuse racism with discrimination, alot of people don’t know the meaning of racism, they just use it blindly.
And then we have Migrant Tales, which invents racism everywhere. Just check all the posts tagged “racism”.
Allan, you can think what you want and live as much as you want in denial. We made a decision a long, long time ago: We will challenge racism wherever it appears.
I have an obligation to stand up to such a social ill. It’s a bit like seeing a mob lynching an innocent victim and not saying anything. We do, and loudly. Thank you for confirming what we do on Migrant Tales.
Allan
You are the person that doesn’t think a 14-year old black girl verbally abused on the Helsinki metro on a weekly basis is racism, including bring told to ‘go home’. You said she has to grow up – remember that?
Your position has been to deny all racism.
Allan: And then we have Migrant Tales, which invents racism everywhere. Just check all the posts tagged “racism”.
No, that’s your opinion that we invent racism is everywhere, this blog tries to tackle the racism that happens in Finland, many migrants have a story to tell about racism that they face or have faced before, are you saying they invent stories? Allan, what makes you say that we invent racism? haver you ever been victim of racism? are you a Finn?? if you’re a Finn then how can you possible say racism doesnt exist when it doesnt effect you, also are you a target of racism? racism i mean by, are you being discriminated or being attacked because of the color of your skin? i will expect you to answer these question i present you, i just want to know what makes you think we invent here racism and how you end up in to thatr conclusion?
M.T: I have an obligation to stand up to such a social ill. It’s a bit like seeing a mob lynching an innocent victim and not saying anything. We do, and loudly. Thank you for confirming what we do on Migrant Tales.
exactly, and the people who’re lynching are trying to make as quiet so they wont get exposed.
So, MT, what exactly have you done to tackle racism?