Standing together with four other Nordic prime ministers, Juha Sipilä states that Finland isn’t a racist country, according to YLE in English. I’m a bit baffled by Sipilä’s statement. What does Finland “not being a racist country” actually mean?
Tag: anti-racism
Finland’s Rosa Parks moment and crossing the line
For those of us who have been anti-racism activists for many years, Tuesday, July 28, offered us something we hadn’t seen before in Finland: A spontaneous 15,000-20.000-strong demonstration against racism and fascism in Helsinki. Was that very important demonstration a Rosa Parks moment and an important watershed to make Finland a more inclusive country?
Media researcher claims Finnish politicians don’t challenge racism strongly enough because they fear losing voters
Media researcher Anu Koivunen believes that Finnish politicians don’t challenge racism because they fear losing voters, reports MTV3. Koivunen said that reaction would have been stronger in Sweden if the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen scandal would have happened in that neighboring country.
July 28, 2015: Finland’s Rosa Parks moment
On December 1, 1955 the late Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. That historically important incident was for many the spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
Institute of Race Relations: Sweden’s counter-extremism policies fail the accountability test
Migrant Tales insight: The first question that came to mind when reading the posting below is how Finland challenges the rise of fascism and far-right parties? Meanwhile, right under our noses, is the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* the third-largest party in parliament. What does a party like the PS say about how Finland is dealing with the…
Effectively challenging intolerance and promoting respect in Finland and elsewhere
An effective weapon that racists use is to convince you that you don’t count. One of the overriding matters that I’ve learned time and again is that silence is the worst decision you can make when challenging intolerance. There are many effective ways to challenge racism like a simple question: I disagree with you. Can…
Healthy advice: Don’t flirt with racism, include don’t exclude, involve and we’ll learn to live together
One of the matters one learns after answering thousands of comments on Migrant Tales and posting near daily on this humble site is the language and arguments used by anti-immigration groups, which are openly against a Finland that is international, multicultural and open. By multicultural I mean treating everyone in this country, irrespective of their background, with…
Olen suomalainen, a video that says we’re Finns on our terms
What kind of questions does the Olen suomalainen (I’m a Finn) video clip raise about Finland and Finnish identity in the new century? For one, shows that there is wide support for the idea that being Finnish is a personal matter and can be embraced on one’s terms. In less than a week since it got…
Is silence an effective response to racism?
One of the questions we should ask ourselves is what should our response be to those that are hostile to migrants, visible minorities and our ever-growing cultural diversity. Should silence be the answer? One of the matters that I have learned through my many years of studying and writing about cultural diversity, is that silence…
Abde Hussein shows there is more than one way to put racism on the defensive
There’s more than one way to put intolerance on the defensive. Abde Hussein wrote on Thursday an encounter he had with a young unemployed white Finn, who said in public that he was a “monkey” and “living off welfare.” A discussion ensued but to make a long story short, the young white Finn turned out…