Kiitoksia myös Muhammed Shirelle ja Ibrahim Juniorille.
Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.
Tämä blogikirjoitus julkaistiin Migrant Talesissä luvalla.
Tag: facebook
Facebook Imran Adan: Whiten your skin, it will help you find work in Finland
Migrant Tales insight: There is no racism in Finland, right? A black person gets stopped in Tampere by a white 50-year-old who thinks he has so much privilege that he can insult a black man, Imran Adan, in a racist way.
“A man stopped me that for no reason and started to ask why I am in Finland and what I do here,” he said. “Before I could answer him and in near-shock, he said that if I’m not working and not in school, I must be living off social welfare.”
The man gave him advice and told me to whiten my skin if I wanted to get a job.
While such a statement would shock anyone, Adan said that a black man who was watching the conversation told him that he should take the white Finns advice because it would help him get a job.
“I’ve been whitening my skin,” said the black person who had been living in Finland for a year.
For those who don’t know Adan, he works at Tampere University as a coordinator and was a former research assistant.
“The last thing I will ever do is whiten my skin,” he said. “This skin color has remained with me for generations and there is no reason for me to whiten it. I will never change my identity.”
Read the original post here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: You first have to break society to remold it into your vision
Migrant Tales insight: This quote by Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica, gives us a glimpse of how the alt-right uses social media platforms like Facebook to manipulate voters. If I had to choose a party that is in the same league as Steve Banon and the hard right, without question it would be the Perussuomalaiset* and its leader Jussi Halla-aho. They have aimed to polarize and break Finnish society to remold it into their deranged vision.
The Perussuomalaiset aren’t the only ones. There are a lot of politicians in parties like the National Coalition Party that want to break existing Finnish society.
This appears in an interview in The Guardian of London:
“If you want to fundamentally change society you first have to break it. It’s only when you break it is when you can remold the pieces to your vision of a new society. This was the weapon that Steve Bannon wanted to use to fight his culture wars.”
Read the full story and watch the video here.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Facebook Reija Härkönen: Finnish police fetch and aim to deport an eight-month-old baby and parents
Migrant Tales insight: Reija Härkönen is well-known anti-racism activist in Finland who has her heart in the right place. I agree with her: What is happening in Finland today is shameful and reveals more cowardice than good judgment. How many squad cars and policemen do you need to deport a family that sought asylum in this country?
See the picture below and wonder.
Read the original posting here.
How a story in Migrant Tales was incorrectly judged as “hate speech”
A news story I published Saturday about two black and one foreign woman who were insulted and threatened in a racist manner got taken down in the Rasmus forum. It was the first time ever that this has happened to me in Facebook.
Facebook only gave me a note stating that the story didn’t abide by its community standards.
So what did my “hate speech” story say?
A year ago a white Finnish woman threw a bucketful of water at three women and four children below and started to insult and threaten them in a racist manner.
Said the victim, Ruth Waweru.Folabit, in Migrant Tales last year: “When another neighbor told the woman to shut up, she called her an n-word lover. She said that she was a Finn, and therefore, nothing would happen to her [for harassing her in a racist manner and throwing a bucket of water].”
After a year the three victims get the following decision from the prosecutor: “I will not press charges because the suspected crime, when evaluated as a whole, should be seen as minor considering the harm it caused or the degree of guilt of the suspect that it reveals.”
I will not go into all the details of the story because they are already published, but it’s quite incredible that a white person in Finland can do something like this and get away with it. I just wonder what would have happened if the person who threw the water, insulted and threatened three white people was black.
“I’d probably get deported,” said one of the victims.
Suvi Tanninen, who complained to Facebook about the story, claims that I was guilty of “hate speech” because I wrote demeaningly about white Finns.
In the posting she calls me “a mental retard.”
One look at her Facebook page “likes” reveals who this person is: Tanninen “likes” far-right online trash publications such as Nykysuomi, MV, vigilante group the Soldiers of Odin, Suomen Sisu and Finland First.
All of the above are responsible for fueling and maintaining hate speech against migrants and minorities in Finland.
Here is the official complaint that Suvi Tanninen gave to Facebook about the article, which she claimed was hate speech (sic!). Facebook should do it’s job better and not just censor people in the way the story was today.
UPDATED (13.5): You still see people who think racism is ok and don’t mind advertising. Even so, why don’t they learn how to spell the word “racist” correctly?
Shamsul Alam is one of the new brave faces of Finland that nobody can make go away
Racism and hate speech are social ills that have spread like wildfire in Finland. Racists in Finland come from the same place than other racists in other countries. It is unacceptable that in a country like Finland, which prides itself as a modern Nordic welfare state, that racism and hate speech can see another day with near-impunity.
Finland will hold municipal elections on Sunday and there are a number of minority candidates running for city council. YLE reported that two municipal candidates of Helsinki, Green Party MP Ozan Yanar and Suldaan Said Ahmed of the Left Alliance, have received death threats as well as a constant barrage of racist abuse.
Kerava city council candidate, Shamsul Alam of the Left Alliance, has had to take his share of racist attacks. He has turned to the police to file charges against his attackers but neither has he heard from them nor his attackers been quieted and brought to justice.
The businessman from Bangladesh, who has lived in Finland for seven years, was brought to my attention by a Green Party candidate from the same city, Zoila Forss, who has faced as well her generous share of racist abuse.
The question we should be asking ourselves is why does this type of hate speech persist? Why aren’t we hearing any strong condemnation from the government and other politicians? Is it because part of this hate speech emanates from the halls of power?
Silence is a political statement as well.
“I’m not too hopeful that justice will be brought against these people,” said Alam. “Apart from racism, why do these people attack me in such a way?”
The Left Alliance candidate has two children under the age of 7 years and he’s worried about their safety.
“I’m really very concerned about the safety of my children and must take steps to protect them,” he continued. “We still have to challenge racism and one of the best ways is to expose it in the media.”
“Even so, the government and politicians must speak out as well,” he added. “The police have yet to act on the racist harassment I have received.”
Apart from the police, what is the responsibility of social media multinational companies like Facebook in spreading such hatred and racism?
We wish Alam the best of luck in the municipal elections and are saddened by all the racist flack he has had to endure.
He’s the brave face of the new Finland, no question about that.
Kerava is a city located about 30km north of Helsinki. In this ad, Alam states that he wants to bring the opinions of migrants to the city council and that more resources should be put in integration schemes. The right to equal education of children and youths should be guaranteed.
One of Alam’s harassers. He tells him to f**k off and go back to his own country and teach his own kind.
Fake profiles, sickening comments abound on Facebook against people who exercise their civil rights.
If we are against racism, bigotry and homophobia why do we continue to be Facebook friends?
Some may rightly ask why it took over a year to charge former PS substitute councilman Olli Sademies for stating that African men should be sterilized, Here’s another question: Why are there so few light-slap-on-the-hand sentences for hate speech in Finland? In 2009-14 there were only 27 people who were sentenced for ethnic agitation, according to MTV, which cites Statistics Finland.
All of this points to one thing that we are near-constantly denying: Racism, bigotry and discrimination have deep roots in Finland and such social ills are perpetrated by white Finnish privilege.
Former Perussuomalaiset party member and retired policeman Olli Sademies is being charged for ethnic agitation. His comments are so full of racism that he’s on the same level as former PS MP hothead James Hirvisaari. He’s an example of not only the racism and ignorance of Finnish society but their deep roots in the police and politics. Would you be Sademies’ Facebook friend?
Institutions like the police service are so deeply immersed in their own denial of racism and bigotry that they actually believe that they don’t ethnically profile anyone.
Facebook: An essay on immigration and multiculturaism
I don’t know Dexter personally but I like what he wrote about Saturday’s demonstrations for and against asylum seekers.
We are just as worried as you, Dexter, about the atmosphere in Finland.
Unfriend those Facebook friends that are openly racist, homophobic and sexist
Politics makes strange bedfellows.
The old saying claims the latter but does it have to be that way?
There’s one matter that continues to baffle me about Finnish politics: How openly xenophobic and Islamophobic politicians are Facebook “friends” with people who claim to champion cultural diversity and anti-racism. If we look at the US Civil Rights Movement (1955-68), there’s one key lesson: Don’t flirt with those that are your enemies, name and shame them.
The Civil Rights Movement had a big impact on the United States depending on where you lived. Many parts of my former hometown of Los Angeles were “liberal,” or in favor of the aims of the Civil Rights Movement.
How did the Civil Rights Movement impact my life in the 1970s? For one, we openly named and shamed those that still lived in their racist mindset of the pre-Civil Rights Movement. If you had issues with racism, you had to tread with extra care so you wouldn’t be branded a racist.
Continue reading “Unfriend those Facebook friends that are openly racist, homophobic and sexist”
PS MP Laura Huhtasaari’s problems deepen concerning her alleged membership in a racist Facebook community
Migrant Tales understands that a complaint had been made to Facebook about a racist community called Puskaraiskaajien rasistinen tausta ! or “The racist background of rapists [hiding] in bushes.” Facebook concluded that it did not breach community standards.
Does this mean that the Facebook site doesn’t insult and degrade minorities like blacks and Muslims? Not at all!
Social platforms like Facebook and Twitter are responsible for much of the racism and bigotry that you’ll find on social media today.
But at least Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari considers the Puskaraiskaajien rasistinen tausta ! Facebook community to be so racist that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with it.
Huhtasaari is in hot water this week after Helsingin Sanomat exposed her belonging to that racist Facebook community.
Posting a picture on that Facebook site of a black child in a pail eating a watermelon that reads “a bucketful of shit” does not apparently breach Facebooks’ community standards. Fine.
But at least Huhtasaari has more sense than Facebook since she considers her membership in that community could either hurt or boost her political career.
Racism and xenophobia are crowd pleasers in today’s Finland and can do wonders for your political career.
