The biggest challenge facing our culturally and ethnically (non-white) community this century is the narrow definition of who we are. As long as our definition excludes others, all efforts at “integrating” newcomers and ensuring that they become members of society will fail. The aims of our schools to teach children of foreign parents to become active citizens will fail, too.
Our non-white community will help Finland one day to understand that we’re not monolithic slabs of identity held together by our power, privilege, prejudice, and bigotry. Our Finnish identity, which lives inside all of us, can manifest itself in many ways that deviate from the narrow definition.
Category: Enrique Tessieri