The PS’ crystal ball racism based on selective scenarios

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With the parliamentary election about 10 months away in April 2023 and a disastrous county election showing and equally depressing opinion poll results, it’s clear that the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is desperately trying to connect with voters.

One example of these underhanded tactics is a proposal by the PS to close the border with Russia in case of hybrid threats coming from Moscow.

Two scenarios. Source: Facebook

Haven’t you wondered how parties like the PS fear-monger? It’s like they have a crystal ball to justify their racism by constructing selective scenarios.

In such stories coming from the PS, one must dig deeper and find out what is behind the proposal.

PS chairperson, Riikka Purra, claims that the measure is to guarantee the security of white Finns. OK, she does not mention white Finn, but that is what she means.

Thus, we see with the PS proposal r message: asylum seekers from Muslim and African countries threaten Finland’s white culture and society.

Purra, who heads the administrative committee of parliament, threatens to give the government’s proposal would fail to pass. In the face of the PS’ 38 MPs. the vote would not get a two-thirds majority.

Suspending the right to seek asylum, or just confining it to the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, is not only a human rights violation but a political prank by the PS to further their election campaign in April. The EU has also stated that suspending asylum applications is illgeal.

Everyone is aware that the aim of closing the border is part of the PS’ zero asylum seeker goal.

Continue reading “The PS’ crystal ball racism based on selective scenarios”

Ilta-Sanomat’s message hasn’t changed in the past 30 years: Islam and refugees are a threat to Finland

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Ever wondered why tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat continue to publish racist stories? When the first Somalis came to Finland in the early 1990s, the tabloid had a field day (see billboards below). Imagine headlines like “Somalis will remain in Finland,” “Somalis tricked (authorities) to get asylum,” and twenty years later, “10,000 illegal refugees will come this year to Finland.”

As we all know, there is no such thing as an “illegal” refugee. Refugees are refugees, period.

The latest story by Ilta-Sanomat is on EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, who said something positive about Islam on her visit to the United Arab Emirates (see tweet below).

What does the Ilta-Sanomat story reveal about anti-Muslim racism in Finland? It shows that Finnish tabloids and the media have successfully framed Muslims as a threat to Finland. If you say something positive about Muslims, you are a traitor and must be crazy.

Ilta-Sanomat in 2017…
Ilta-Sanomat in 1996…
…and in 1994
Continue reading “Ilta-Sanomat’s message hasn’t changed in the past 30 years: Islam and refugees are a threat to Finland”

Why do the Perussuomalaiset speak in code when referring to Muslims?

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Throughout the years, far-right parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* have in recent years mainly used code words to refer to Muslims. Some of the most common ones are sexual offenders, overrepresented in crime statistics, asylum seekers, and, now the latest, vieraskieli, or “people who don’t speak Finnish as their mother tongue.”

One article published last week by Helsingin Sanomat highlighted the issue.

Russian and Estonian speakers were the most prominent vieraskieli groups in the story about Espoo schools. Arabic speakers were the third-biggest mother language group.

When far-right politicians like Riikka Purra use the term vieraskieli, it means in code Muslim and people of color.

One researcher pointed out that using the term vieraskieli is safer and more sanitized to express anti-Muslim hatred. It may help you avoid ethnic agitation charges.

Many understand that the Finnish media is part of the country’s racism problem. Any sensible person can see that the media rarely asks racialized people their opinions, never mind experts’ views on issues like racism and discrimination.

One overbearing message of parties like the PS and the near-silence and flirting of parties like the National Coalition Party is that people who are granted asylum are portrayed as a threat to Finnish values and culture.

Racism is deeply ingrained in Finnish culture. Excluding other voices means that little to nothing will change. Institutional racism must be challenged head-on.

I believe that if Finland’s newsrooms weren’t so white, they would write about racialized people differently.

It would be a big blow to the racist narrative of parties like the PS, which always label racialized groups with suspicion.

Twitter (@johanneskoski): The Perussuomalaiset are racist – what of it?

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With parliamentary elections approaching in April 2022 in a backdrop of depressing opinion polls, the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is ratcheting its usual attacks against migrants and minorities. The strategy is like a motto used by the Green Berets in the Vietnam War: “Kill ’em all, let God sort them.”

The violent saying was used in the thirteenth century, which means the ruthless extermination of enemy soldiers and civilians.

The PS does the same thing: exterminate everyone who isn’t like us, and destroy all of them in Finland.

Finland’s racism problem is so acute that people (less today) openly admit that they are racist.

Today there are more closet racists than before. The PS (openly racist) and Kokoomus (many closet racists) are good examples.

PS MEP Laura Huhtasaari tweets: “The Perussuomalaiset are racists What of it?”

Tweets @johanneskoski: “The political core of the Perussuomalaiset is racism. No wonder the Perussuomalaiset always appear as vicious school bullies, ruthless liars, and trolls mocking democratic institutions.
Racists have nothing else to offer but endless hatred. Source: Twitter

How the Finnish media Others racialized pupils

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One of the casualties of the war in Ukraine will be social rights and the recognition of racialized people in Finland. Are we witnessing more aggressive reporting as a result?

Helsingin Sanomat published Wednesday a whole spread about how “over half of the students at several schools in Espoo don’t speak Finnish as their mother tongue.”

And it leads the story claiming that a researcher warns that what is happening in Espoo is a part of a “worrisome” European trend.

Sounds pretty sensationalist, right?

To top it off, Yle published a survey a day earlier showing that a majority of Russian speakers in Finland have a negative view of the country’s membership in Nato.

The Yle story labels Russians in such a toxic way that it feeds the Russophobia beast that resides inside many Finns.

The story can only be accessed through a paywall.

The Helsingin Sanomat, like the Yle survey, have a common message: Don’t trust “foreigners.” They are a problem.

Another question that the Helsingin Sanomat article raises is the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS).* We have heard for a long time how the Islamophobic party has spread ethnonationalist views and the great replacement theory.

Continue reading “How the Finnish media Others racialized pupils”

Homogeeninen kansallisvaltio? Ei kiitos! 

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Olimme yllättyneet Perussuomalaisten (Ps) nuorison kolmannen varapuheenjohtajan Lauri Laitisen kirjoituksesta,* joilla hän puolusti kansallisvaltiota ja sen etnistä ja kielelistä homogeenisuutta.  

Myös yllätyimme miksi Helsingin Sanomat julkaisi kirjoituksen jossa on niin paljon epäasiallisuus. Voisinko minä julkaista esim. kirjoituksen jossa vaadin naisten paluuta hellan ääreen?

Tällaiset ajatukset eivät ole mitään uutta. Natsi-Saksan sotarikollinen Alfred Rosenberg, joka tuomittiin ja hirtettiin Nuremburgin oikeudenkäynnin jälkeen, väitti, että Saksalaisten “arjalainen-rotu” voisi saavuttaa suuruuden vasta, kun se olisi päässyt eroon vähemmistöistä, kuten juutalaisista. 

Rosenbergin kirjoituksia suositellaan yhä luettavaksi Suomen Sisulla.yhä luettavaksi Suomen Sisulla.

Voidaan kysyä kuinka homogeeniset kansallisvaltiot ovat “luonnollisia” jos niitä on luotu väkivallalla ja toisten ryhmien sortamisen tai hävittämisen kautta.   

Vaikka Laitisen historian tuntemus tai valikoiva muistinmenetys on ilmeistä, hänen kirjoitus paljastaa huolestuvampaa seikan: Perussuomalaisten flirttailu tai pyrkimys “homogeenisen kansallisvaltioon.” 

Vaikka Ps vastustaa kiivaasti kulttuurista ja etnistä moninaisuutta, he eivät tarjoa ratkaisuja siihen, miten homogeenisuus saavutetaan. Miten Riikka Purran ja Jussi Halla-ahon puolue aikoo pysäyttää kulttuurista moninaisuutta? 

Ainoa vastaus, joka minulla tulee mieleen on valeuutisten ja populismin levittäminen ja/tai muuttamalla demokraattista järjestelmää kuten olemme nähneet Unkarissa ja Republikaaninen puoluessa Yhdysvalloissa. 

Enrique Tessieri

Ahti Tolvanen

Suomen viharikosvastainen yhdistys ry

* Lähetimme vastine Helsingin Sanomille (27.5.) tuloksetta.

How institutional racism entrenches at a Finnish school

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How does institutional racism survive unchallenged at a Finnish school? An anonymous source got in touch with Migrant Tales and pointed out how structural or institutional racism survives at a Finnish school.

One of the most crucial factors for its survival aren’t surveys and legal ineffective and false assurances against discrimination and racism but what the principal or leadership of the school thinks about such social ills. Is anti-racism a low priority, and does the school management camouflage its racism usually with its silence?

In Finland, according to the source, it is easy to house racist views and seek cover in the protective structural racism infrastructure. One can even get money from the state for anti-discrimination work by throwing out catchphrases like “this will be good for integration.”

In many cases, the promise that “this will be good for integration” is false and misguided and feeds structural racism. Integration, or adaption, is a two-way process. Even so, this is usually forgotten.

The majority is not required to “integrate” but the newcomer is.

Guiding principles of the EU National Plan Against Racism 2020-2025. One of the many important objectives is to tackle structural racism.

Here are some of the factors that maintain structural racism at a Finnish school:

Continue reading “How institutional racism entrenches at a Finnish school”

Peddling theories about ethnic replacement in Finland for political profit and blood

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I received a call from an old Migrant Tales reader who was distraught about a letter to the editor written by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth of Lappeenranta. The headline? “The nation-state is our best protection.”

Is it?

The reader continued: “How can Helsingin Sanomat publish something that openly excludes non-white Finns and other minorities in Finland? I’m worried about my child. What kind of a country are we heading? Nazi Germany?”

After reading the letter to the editor, I agreed and understood the reader’s concern. Like the Republicans in the US, the PS of Finland are openly subverting our Nordic democracy by replacing it with an autocratic system like Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.

Source: Twitter

Apart from excluding minorities in Finland and forgetting what racism and hatred of Nazi Germany in World War 2, the PS Youth claims the following:

Continue reading “Peddling theories about ethnic replacement in Finland for political profit and blood”