Finnish Internet policeman spreads stereotypes on Twitter about the Roma

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finnish Internet policeman, Marko Forss, has been criticized for spreading stereotypes on Twitter about a Roma who tried to steal a frozen chicken from a market, according to tabloid Iltalehti. Shouldn’t Forss, who monitors hate sites and was named policeman of the year in 2011, know better? 

If it is surprising that Forss can make such a joke publicly, what is even more surprising is his excuse: ”I don’t see any racism in such a joke.”

What did Forss tweet? “Some funny things happen in police work, and for some reason these incidents often involve gypsies. In the best one a gypsy woman drops a frozen chicken from under her clothing in a shop. When police take the group into custody one of the men loudly objects: ‘come on, own up! Who threw that chicken at our Ally?’”*

The issue is not what he thought but how others could interpret and be offended by his so-called joke. Does Forss think that the Roma in Finland are so weathered by racism and social exclusion that they can take a joke that reinforces prejudices that they shoplift for a living?

Let’s imagine for a moment that the Finnish Internet policeman would be working for the Metropolitan Police in London and would make a similar joke about an ethnic group like Pakistanis.

Would he be able to get away with a I-didn’t-think-it-was-racist excuse?

I doubt it.

While we should be careful not to label all Finnish police as public servants who lack cultural sensitivity and savvy, Forss’ comment shows how few visible minorities  there are in the Finnish police force.

* Many thanks go to Justice Demon for the translation.

The PS’ anti-immigration message suffers a hard blow

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Despite the fact that the debate in Finland on immigrants and immigration has taken a turn for the worse in some respects, it’s not as bad as it used to be before the April 2011 parliamentary elections and when Anders Breivik went on his murderous rampage on July 22, 2011. While anti-immigration politicians still want to inflame public debate, their message no longer carries the same weight as before.  

Certainly there are still many Finns who believe that what these anti-immigration politicians say is true but not as many as such politicians would like.

Take a look at this video clip of a then-confident Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho being interviewed in 2009 on Voice Häräämö. Why doesn’t he appear any longer on such programs as an “immigration expert (sic!)?”

Answer: loss of credibility and  because reporters are more critical than before of their message.

It must be frustrating for politicians, who base their popularity on anti-immigration rhetoric, to see their message fall on its face after being cut off at the knees by time.

This situation especially worries the biggest anti-immigration loudmouths of the party like MP James Hirvisaari, who recently claimed the PS did poorly in the municipal elections because it wasn’t outspoken enough on immigration issues as before.

Is this the main reason for the PS’ poor showing due to the credibility of its anti-immigration message? Did they do poorly in the municipal elections because of the crackpot stuff they say and do to gain attention?

Most likely.

If anti-immigration politicians of the PS are interviewed by the media today, it’s doubtful that any sensible person would take them seriously never mind any good reporter.

The same ogres that these politicians unleashed against immigrants follow them around like ghosts: racism, fascism and far-right ideology.

Finland is slowly but surely learning to distinguish between what is and what isn’t racism, what is and what isn’t far-right ideology.

This is a positive matter, but a lot more work needs to be done to rid this menace that threatens our society today.

 

 

 

 

 

Julian Abagond: Spielberg’s Lincoln

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Julian Abagond

“Lincoln” (2012) is a Steven Spielberg film about the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, the one that freed the slaves. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field as his wife and Tommy Lee Jones as Radical Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Gloria Reuben plays Elizabeth Keckley, Mrs Lincoln’s dressmaker and friend.

The film is based in part on the book “Team of Rivals” (2006) by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Executive summary: “The Help” as costume drama – though Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing as Lincoln.

Best line: When Gloria Reuben says to Lincoln:

White people don’t want us here – any of them. Do you?

Like the “The Help”, Participant Media lists this as one of its films about social action. And like “The Help” it rewrites history as a story about a well-meaning white person, who is not one bit racist, helping blacks by fighting against n-word-using white racists – while blacks largely take a back seat.

While “The Help” had fleshed-out black characters, this film has none. Gloria Reuben comes the closest – she is listed 17th in the credits. In this film about freeing slaves not a single slave appears.

On the other hand it does show black soldiers in the opening scene – so the Helpless Darkies in this one are not quite so helpless.

Although the film takes great pains to make Daniel Day-Lewis look like Lincoln, talk like Lincoln and walk like Lincoln, it whitewashes Lincoln.

In real life Lincoln used the n-word. Spielberg’s Lincoln does not – even though others in the film do.

In real life Lincoln said stuff like this:

… there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.

Spielberg’s Lincoln never says stuff like that. He is for equal rights! This is no longer history, but fantasy. Lincoln was against giving blacks the vote till the last week of his life, and even then it would only be for veterans and the “very intelligent” – Jim Crow stuff.

In real life Lincoln was for ethnic cleansing. He wanted to send blacks away after the war – till Frederick Douglass (not in the film) talked him out of it.

Douglass 11 years after Lincoln’s death said:

President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the coloured race.

Racism is not a matter of some misguided whites, like in a Hollywood film. Most whites are not Basically Good, as this film would have you suppose. Most are racist, morally compromised. Lincoln was no different.

What sets Lincoln apart was that he fought against his own racism, against his fallen nature, and did right in spite of it. Instead of giving into it and calling it right. That is the story that went untold. It would be far truer, far more interesting and far more helpful as a model for social action. Instead we get yet another feel-good White Saviour fantasy flick.

Read original story here.

 This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

Check out this blog entry on Spielberg’s Lincoln movie posted by Racism Review.

Send kudos to those who speak out against racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We must change the ever-adverse debate against immigrants and visible minorities in Finland.  The way to end it is by giving our silence a voice and by sending kudos to those who have the courage to speak out against racism and prejudice.

Source: Lake Harriet Community School.

Migrant Tales would like to give kudos Tuija Väyrynen of the city of Kouvola, who said that racism and social exclusion are on the rise in her city.

For a city official to show her concern about such a worrisome social ill is one matter, but publishing it in the local newspaper with her real name shows courage and sets a good example.

In Finland, there are many people from all walks of life who are just as concerned about the rise of intolerance as Migrant Tales. We should therefore take the time to show our admiration to such people for the bravery.

To read the original story on Kouvolan Sanomat click here.

 

Turun Sanomat: Finland Democrats eye PS’ anti-immigration vote

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Finland Democrats, which bases its political agenda on the far-right Sweden Democrats, aims to become a new party and compete for the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s anti-immigration vote, reports Turun Sanomat. The creation of a new anti-immigration party reveals the ever-negative debate in Finland surrounding immigrants and immigration.  

The PS is the only party that has attracted large number of votes due to its anti-immigration stance. Anti-immigration groups like Vapauspuolue, Muutos 2011 and other so-called taxi parties have failed to lure large number of votes.

A “taxi party” in Bolivia is one that is so small that all of its members can fit inside a taxi.

Click here to see original Facebook post.

The new party, which will be spearheaded by Jussi Yli-Paavola, established a new Facebook group Monday where the Finland Democrats “aim to defend the rights of Finns…a poor country that cannot be the social welfare office of EU brokers and Africans. We have to act before it’s too late!!”

An anonymous Finland Democrats’ member denied on Turun Sanomat that PS MPs like James Hirvisaari were going to form part of the new party. He said, however, that PS members are welcome to join the Finland Democrats if they wished.

Click here to see original Facebook post.

Apart from Hirvisaari, other far-right anti-immigrant PS members such as Freddy Van Wonterghem, Harri Tauriainen, Jani Viinikainen and Jani Salomaa are speculated to form part of the new party, according to some social media sites.

  Click here to see original Facebook post.

Even if the Finland Democrats will need more than luck to challenge the PS, it is a worrying sign how a small-but-vocal group of Finns aim to make far-right ideology and intolerance acceptable in this country.

UPDATE (7:45pm Finnish time): Turun Sanomat published a story earlier today based on a bogus statement sent supposedly by the Finland Democrats. The statement claimed that a number of PS members, including James Hirvisaari, had joined the new party. The updated story in Turun Sanomat, which was cited by Migrant Tales, has a Finland Democrat source that denies any PS members such as Hirvisaari, Van Wonterghem, Tauriainen, Viinikainen and Salomaa joining the Finland Democrats.

Thus the aim of the bogus statement was to fool Turn Sanomat and apparently punish it for publishing an armband story written by Hirvisaari’s former aide, Helena Eronen, back in April.

Kouvolan Sanomat: Racism on the rise in the Finnish city of Kouvola

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A city official that works with immigrants in refugees in the city of Kouvola, located 100km north of Helsinki, claims that racism and social exclusion are on the rise, reports Kourolvan Sanomat. The official, Tuija Värynen, said that complaints by immigrants of more racism and harassment rose clearly in March-April.

Victims of racism can be children and adults, according to Väyrynen.

Migrant Tales got in touch with an immigrant who lives in Kouvola, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I was once walking with a black imam and heard people hurl racist comments at us in public,” he said. “I try to avoid going to the market with black people because this attracts attention [and probably trouble]. I’m white. I never go to discos and bars.”

The immigrant from Kouvola said that a group of Somalis were asked to get off the bus by the driver because they spoke too loudly.

 

 

Swedish immigrant killer is sentenced to life in prison

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Peter Mangs, the Swedish gunman convicted of two murders and five attempted murders, was sentenced Friday by the Mälmö District Court to life in prison, reports ABC News, citing AP.  

The court found Mangs guilty in July  but his sentence was delayed pending a psychiatric evaluation that found him to be sane.

The forty-year-old man, who is a Swede of Finnish descent, killed his first victim in 2003 and terrorized Malmö during 2009-10. All of his victims were immigrants.

While we can debate how much anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiment can encourage a man to murder others as we saw in Norway with Anders Breivik, racism and hate know no master. It can bite back at its keeper, and hard.

The Malmo Discrict Court ordered Mangs to pay 1.2 million kroner (140,000 euros) in compensation to to suverirs and their families.

AP reports that about 40% of Mälmö’s 300,000 inhabitants are first- and second-generation immigrants.

Race Council Cymru: “Under-reporting” racism in Wales (and Finland)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Police College of Finland may soon publish its hate crime statistics for 2011. Considering that hate crimes reported to the police in 2010 fell by 15% to 860 versus 1,007 cases from the previous year, one could ask how reliable such statistics are. Do they reveal hate crime cases in Finland or police attitudes towards hate crime? 

I would draw the attention of the Finnish police authorities to a Race Council Cymru study published by the BBC, which reveals how racism goes “under-reported” in Wales.

Ignorance of one’s rights, language barriers, fear of reprisals and lack of trust are some reasons why black and visible minorities don’t report racist harassment to the police, according to the study.

Heaven Crawley, director of the Centre for Migration Policy Research at Swansea University, said that not only did people endure “everyday racism,” they adapted to such abuse.  Adapting to such harassment could encourage one to not use public transport, cover up one’s skin so people cannot tell a person belongs to a minority, young women may prefer not to wear the hijab because it targets them for racist abuse.

People with ethnic minority backgrounds account for about 4% of Wales’ 3 million population, which is in percentage terms quite similar to the amount of immigrants (3.4%) living in Finland.

As I listened to the report, I could not avoid some parallels with what some immigrants had reported to me in Finland.

Below are some important findings of the “everyday racism” immigrants and visible minorities suffer in Wales:

  • When they get on the bus they may suffer verbal abuse;
  • They may be walking down the street and people may be shouting at them;
  • Racist abuse of minorities is pervasive at the workplace and school;
  • Instead of complaining, minorities don’t complain to the police but adapt their behavior;
  • Only a minority (one in five) report such incidents to the police.

Crawley cited the following factors why such cases weren’t reported to the authorities:

  • They didn’t know they could;
  • If they reported their incident they wouldn’t be taken seriously by the police;
  • Those that reported these incidents said no action had been taken.

Since it is possible that the “low” number of hate crimes reported to the police in Finland may reveal the tip of the iceberg of a more serious problem, such statistics may sadly reveal how little the police are doing to address the issue.

Add to the latter the negative debate in Finland concerning immigrants as well as Minister Päivi Räsänen’s tacit approval of ethnic profiling by the police, it’s pretty clear that there is a serious issue that needs addressing by society.

 

Halla-aho wants to ease deportation law

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP Jussi Halla-aho and his far-right Suomen Sisu and anti-immigration cronies would like to tighten immigration laws further by making it easier to deport convicted foreigners, reports YLE in English. 

Presently, foreigners “may” be deported from Finland if they are convicted of a crime. Halla-aho wants the word “may” to be changed to “will” be deported.

If Halla-aho ever got his way, an adult who has lived most of his life in Finland but who isn’t a citizen would be automatically deported if he  or she committed a serious crime.

Halla-aho and his band appear to have nothing better to do except fuel suspicion and hostility towards certain groups like Muslims. Drafting laws that aim to ban circumcision or make it easier to deport convicted foreigners not only reveal their narrow-minded views, but their manifest contempt for diversity.

Their anti-immigration rhetoric and arguments, which have remained in a nineteenth-century time warp when Europe was a colonial power, have already struck a negative chord in Finland.

You know something has gone wrong for Halla-aho if even former interior minister,MP Kari Rajamäki, criticized the  proposal. He claimed that it was from the extremist Suomen Sisu associaiton.

Members of the PS, like anti-immigration hardliner MP Olli Immonen, didn’t take Rajamäki’s accusations lightly.  The MP, who is a Suomen Sisu member, said that Rajamäki was jealous of Halla-aho because he didn’t belong to the extremist association.

Racism and prejudice in Finland work in the same way here as elsewhere. Its main purpose is to show how different certain groups are in order to justify the existence of racism. If one looks at Halla-aho’s and the message of other anti-immigration politicians, it’s all about placing obstacles, victimizing and labeling whole groups wholesale to hinder their acceptance and integration.

Their message is reactive – rarely if ever proactive.

Two-way integration still has a long way to go in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What is the aim of Finland’s new integration law, which came into force in September 2011? While the law talks about two-way integration, what does it mean and how is it promoted? 

  Finland’s integration program is like an old abandoned Cadillac. It awakens our optimism but discourages us from acting because it is too costly to restore.

The fact that some politicians in Finland still speak of maassa maan tavala, or ”live in the country as they live, or leave,” reveals that there is still hostility against two-way integration.

Irrespective of the arguments, the key question we should ask is what are these country’s new inhabitants adapting to? Are they encouraged to throw away their cultures and learn how to live in a white Finns’ world? Or is the aim the creation of a healthy bicultural or multicultural identity and society?

There’s been a lot of debate in Finland about the “threat” of so-called ethnic “ghettos” in places like Helsinki and Turku’s Varisuo. Certainly matters like crime and unemployment are social issues that must be addressed by society in any neighborhood.

Why do some consider it a bad matter if ethnic groups and immigrants are concentrated in a neighborhood?

When Finns emigrated to different parts of the world like the Americas and Sweden, the aim was to be where other Finns lived. In my research of the Finns of Argentina, Colonia Finlandesa was a colony where up to the 1930s Finnish was spoken more than Spanish.

The promotion of assimilation as opposed to integration has given birth to a new underclass of second-generation Finns with immigrant backgrounds. Some live in a permanent gray zone where they not only experience animosity from the host culture but from their parents’ culture as well. Who is promoting their acceptance and bolstering their self-esteem?

Another distressing trend was a survey published in early 2011 in Opettaja magazine that reveals 41% of teachers polled would like to place limits on how many children with immigrant backgrounds can attend class.

Opposition to ethnically concentrated neighborhoods and schools reveals in my opinion support for assimilation and opposition to two-way integration.

A question: How are immigrants, never mind their children and grandchildren, ever going to create a sense of cultural pride, identity and self-esteem if the expectation is integration but the reality is assimilation?

I personally want to see a Finland that is culturally diverse where we can embrace and reap synergies from our diverseness.

The 10,000-strong Roma minority that has lived in Finland for 500 years is a good example and a warning of what happens to a group if they don’t assimilate.  The Roma have paid a very high price for not assimilating into white Finnish society through social exclusion and racism.

A Roma elder expressed to me the issue in the following terms: “Even if we have been discriminated against in Finland, we still hold our culture. Nobody can destroy that.”