Looking like a person from the Far East and not speaking Finnish fluently enough can drag you into a racist incident, like what happened to ?? Gia L?c.
The white Finnish women not only spat at his face but demanded that he speak fluent Finnish since he lives in this country.
These two women and I hope ?? Gia L?c reports them to the police would make perfect cultural ambassadors of Finland and S2 (Finland as a second language) teachers as well.
The Facebook posting was published with permission.
MP Ano [1] Turtiainen’s tweet mocking the death of George Floyd sits together with Juha Mäenpää on Facebook. You may ask why?
Mäenpää is a member of the Perussuomalaiset party* and Turtiainen was expelled. One called Muslims “an invasive species” in parliament and the other mocked in a tweet George Floyd’s death.
Turtianen, like Mäenpää, are not only bound by chains in the Facebook picture below but by their racist posts and worldview.
Mäenpää thanked God in 2015 for the burning of an asylum reception center, and Turtiainen has a long list of racist posts on social media.
[1] ”Ano” is a real name in Finland. The equivalent name for women is Anna. The translation of “ano” in Spanish is the anus.
There is one matter that is clear about Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Juha Mäenpää: he hates Muslims so much that last year he compared them to an “an invasive species.” He is also close ideologically with Ano Turtiainen, who mocked George Floyd’s death.
According to the National Geographic, “An invasive species is an organism that is not indigenous, or native, to a particular area. Invasive species can cause great economic and environmental harm to the new area.”
Mäenpää, are Muslims and migrants organisms?
In the interview below with MTV, Mäenpää appears to regret the negative publicity but not what he said. He stated that in his “invasive species” speech in parliament he did not mean any ethnic or religious group.
“Immigration is one factor that affects the economy and taxes,” he said. “I plan to be critical about these matters but choose my words more carefully.”
For those who have followed how Islamophobic parties like the PS speak of Muslims and asylum seekers, will note that much of it is in code. Rarely do they use the term “Muslim” but do refer to asylum seekers, which is code for Muslims.
On Wednesday, the constitutional law committee voted 12-5 to lift MP Mäenpää’s immunity from prosecution.
Three of the committee’s PS members (Olli Immonen, Sakari Puisto, Jukka Mäkynen) and two of the National Coalition Party (Wille Rydman, Heikki Vestman) voted against the measure.
The fact that an MP can label Muslims and migrants as “invasive species” speaks volumes about how disenfranchised these groups are in Finland. For the Mäenpää affair to take a year shows how slowly justice works in this country.
One of the first to criticize the measure was PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, who considered the constitutional law committee vote “shameful.” He said that the PS would vote against the measure in parliament.
To take away Mäenpää immunity, 167 our of 200 MPs would have to back the proposal. In theory, the PS could block the proposal with its 38 MPs.
What did other PS MPs comment about the committee vote?
MP Mauri “Perkele” Peltokangas, who appears close to exploding when giving monologue rants, slammed the decision as an example of the left-green and communist rot in parliament.
MP Sebastian Tynkkynen, who was convicted twice for ethnic agitation, wasn’t very imaginative. He stated that lifting Mäenpää’s immunity was another step in the degradation of free speech.
Slavery is the next thing to hell.
Harriet Tubman 1822-1913
Statues are being toppled left and right, some with permission others without. TV shows and movies like “Gone with the wind” are taken down because of their racist content. All of this indicates that we have reached some sort of tipping point.
Long live #BlackLivesMatters!
In all this protest against racism, Finland appears as an innocent observer of what is happening in the US and other parts of Europe. MP Ano Turtiainen, who got expelled from the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, can tell you how much it cost him to underestimate his racist tweet that mocked George Floyd’s death.
It was a hard blow from the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
The fact that an MP can post such racist trash as a member of Finland’s second-largest party is the clearest indication yet that the #BlackLivesMovement is long overdue in Finland.
But let’s not kid ourselves, #BlackLivesMatter reached Finland in early June.
A Helsingin Sanomat article on the impact of the #BlackLivesMovement claims that we should “learn from history.” It continues by stating that there may not be any need to take down statues of questionable leaders like Edward Colston, King Leopold II, Christopher Colombus, Confederate generals, Winston Churchill, and others as long as we study and learn from history.
Yes, but no. We can take down statues to reflect the values of today.
In Finland, too, we have learned very little or nothing about our culturally and ethnically diverse past. The reason why “we have not learned from our history” is that the whitewashing process is near-complete and systematic.
While some statues in Finland should end up in a museum or in a metal smelter, we need to raise new ones. One of these is of Rosa Emilia Clay. (1875-1959).
There are no statues never mind a humble street that carries her name anywhere in Finland.
Clay was a teacher and Finland’s first African who became a Finnish citizen in 1899. Her perseverance and her suffering as a black woman are proof of the challenges of our culturally and ethnically diverse society still faces.
In my opinion, Finland is such a racialized country and so obsessed with its whiteness that even white people from outside the EU, are othered.
Due to my Jewish background, which I was supposed to forsake due to whitewashing, I was fortunate to rediscover who my distant relatives were and why I was supposed to forget them.
Understanding that we are part of a hostile whitewashing process waged at us should bring guys closer to Emma Tubman’s words, “And I prayed to God to make me strong and able to fight, and that’s what I’ve always prayed for ever since.”
The #BlackLivesMatter movement is growing and getting stronger in Finland as well. It gives us courage, makes us stronger, and abler to fight.
The news continues to roll in for MP Ano Turtiainen, who was suspended from the Perusuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group for a tweet that mocked George Floyd’s death.
After the police carried out their investigation last week and decided not to charge Turtiainen for ethnic agitation or defamation, the police changed course Monday after Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen got involved.
Toiviainen said that there is a strong suspicion that Turtiainen may be guilty after all of ethnic agitation.
There are a lot of questions that Turtiainen’s case brings forth. One of them is how interested are the police in going after people who spread hate speech and racism? The police did not initially suspect Turtiainen’s tweet of ethnic agitation or of defamation since Goerge Floyd was dead.
The tweet is not only a slap in the face of George Floyd and to all the suffering black people are experiencing, but it is also a swipe at Finland black community.
Turtiainen’s “joke?” George Floyd’s wide-eyed face full of terror colored purple with the name of the 1960s rock band “Pink Floyd.”
As the dust settles over this tumultuous week for the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, the question to ask if business will be back to “normal” in the PS?
The first scandal was MP Ano Turtiainen’s tweet that mocked George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police.
Apart from ending Turtianen’s short-lived career as a dark humor comedian, the MP got expelled from the PS parliamentary group until the end of the year, his racist tweet made him “famous” outside of Finland, and two weightlifting groups in the United States and Canada terminated their business relationship with his company.
Turtiainen’s tweet was even noticed by George Floyd’s family in the US.
“The message glorifies police violence and criminal behavior,” said Goerge Floyd’s family lawyer in Teller Report. “It seems that this not the first time MP Turiainen has published racist messages on social media. We believe that Turtiainen’s colleagues in parliament should be held accountable.”
Moreover, Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen is planning to carry out an investigation concerning Turtiainen’s tweet, according to Demokraatti. The police announced earlier that it would not carry out an inquiry about the former PS MP’s tweet.
Equally disturbing but not surprising was PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho’s excuses. He stated that spreading controversial opinions is “a team sport that requires certain table manners.”
I suspect that “table manners” in Halla-aho’s vocabulary means being racist without sounding racist, speaking in code so your followers can decipher your message’s racism, and avoid ethnic agitation charges.
Halla-aho’s and the PS’ hand has been exposed many times in the racist and misogynist cookie jar.
This week, Suomen Perusta, a PS-funded think tank, published a racist and misogynist book called “Truth incites” authored by Jukka Hankamäki. The book, which claims to be a serious philosophical study “of the information and truth crisis of the left-wing populist mainstream media,” is an embarrassment and insulting joke.
Hankamäki’s book was taken down from the Internet after two days of its publication leaving a lot of red faces and the PS pointing the finger at each other. One of the questions was who was responsible for the book’s publication? It appears that nobody or very few read the book before it was published.
Even Halla-aho had to step in and take responsibility even if the party attempted to distance itself from Hankamäki’s work. “This was our mistake, period,” he said. “We did not know that the book contained the kind of material that it did.”
Apart from its racist-eugenicist views on racial purity, Hankamäki did not spare any nice words for Finnish women. One of the claims he made was that Finnish women choose foreign men as partners because they are rejected by Finnish men.
Minister of Science and Culture Hanna Kosonen described Hankamäki’s views of women as “cruel and disturbing.”
The ministry had granted 120,000 euros to Suomen Perusta for the publication of Hankamäki’s book. It is presently reviewing whether to ask the think tank to return the money because of the book’s contents and views on gender and social equality.
Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Ano Turtiainen’s tweet mocking George Floyd’s death is a disgrace. Still, even a worse shame is that he has not apologized to George Floyd’s family, #BlackLivesMatter movement, and also People of African Descent in Europe and Finland for the tweet.
The only matter that appears to have concerned Turtiainen is that his tweet wasn’t good for the PS’ image and that his career as a dark humor comedian and politician came down in flames.
Apoogize now, Ano [1] or is it Año?
People like you are a threat to society and an even greater one in parliament.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen is planning to investigate Turtiainen’s tweet, according to Demokraatti. The police announced earlier that it would not carry out an investigation about the former PS MP’s tweet.
[1] ”Ano” is a real name in Finland. The equivalent name for women is Anna. The translation of “ano” in Spanish is the anus.
Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party MP Ano Turtiainen suffered some big blows last week: he was expelled from the far-right PS (quite a feat for a person who is multiculturally/interculturally challenged), two powerlifting groups in the United States and Canada terminated their business relationship with his company, Metal Sport & Ger (GoMetal). Let’s not forget all the negative publicity he got over a racist tweet that mocked George Floyd’s death.
The fallout continues. Apart from the Finnish Powerlifting Association distancing itself from Turtiainen’s company, which it says it has only had an indirect business relationship, the International Powerlifting Federation and the European Powerlifting Federation are reviewing their relationship with Turtiainen.
The former PS MP’s short-lived career as a racist “dark comedian” and MP came down rapidly in flames.
After Turtiainen was ejected from the PS parliamentary group, he formed his single-MP party called Parliamentary Group Ano Turtiainen (Eduskuntaryhmä Ano Turtiainen). The secretary of the party is James Hirvisaari, who was convicted of ethnic agitation and expelled from the PS in 2013 for posting a picture of a friend doing a Nazi salute in parliament.
For those who still have doubts about Turtiainen’s views, Migrant Tales is publishing below some of his most racist postings. Would you do business with such a man?
Turtiainen, who lives in a small village called Juva in Eastern Finland, thought he could get away with a racist post about George Floyd, who has galvanized the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the United States. The MP’s “dark humor” faced a shit storm that stained his political career, and business.
The “joke?” George Floyd’s face is colored pink just before he died with the name of the 1960s rock band Pink Floyd. In the same tweet, he wrote that as blacks get more rights, the more unruly they become.
Some have described George Floyd’s death as a modern-day lynching.
Turtianen tried a social media lynching of George Floyd but failed miserably.
Turtiainen does not hide his racist views as he does in the posting below, where someone had posted that the Tampere social welfare office is racist because it is against Muslims. Turtiainen responds: “My faith in Tampere was greatly strengthened by this picture [below].”
Turtiainen tries a bit of his racist sarcasm with the posting below. He writes that he recommended to the white man in the picture, who is called Arska, to go to a public swimming pool in East Helsinki, where a lot of people of color live. Arska learns that a lot of his tax euros go to Africa and just for the hell of it he plans to swim in East Helsinki in the future as well.
I don’t know if this is a joke but it is pretty racist.
One of Ano Turtiainen’s favorite targets is Muslims. A number of Syrians in Mikkeli built a small mosque in 2019. Religious freedom and diversity are guaranteed in Finland but Turtiainen and his followers believe that it only applies to white Christians. He writes: “God damn it. Now the atmosphere in Savo is ruined.”
It’s pretty clear that Turtiainen does not like black people and even less, members of the Green Party. In the posting below, he states that with Green-generated electricity you can get a feel of the Caribbean in the living room.
Pretty bad and racist.
Not losing the chance to take a swipe at people of color and spread lies about imaginary no-go zones like Rosengård in Mälmö, Sweden, Turtiainen’s “dark humor” shows a tank baby carriage because Rosengård is such a dangerous place to live.
He writes in the posting that the Swedes have started to integrate into the daily life of the New Swedes.
Sexism forms a big part of Turtiainen’s repertoire. In the posting below, he states that it’s understandable that everything takes time getting used to during the Convid-19 pandemic.
Turtiainen has so much suspicion and hatred for people of color that none of them should be trusted because they are liars. In the posting below, he sarcastically (his dark humor again?) states that it is a school picture taken with teenagers in Sweden.
Turtiainen tries to project and justify his racism by using the free-speech card. If his racist postings and statements have caused him to cross swords with a lot of people and groups, one of them was Chief Inspector Jari Taponen, whom he called a “castrated wimp” for telling him that freedom of expression carries responsibilities. Taponen has filed defamation charges against Turtiainen.
Turtiainen comments on Facebook: “They know how to make things up.”
This is nothing racist published by Turtiainen, but an observation that may fit in with his dark comedian humor.
Ano in Spanish means anus. So if he were to market his products in a Spanish-speaking country, his first name would raise a lot of eyebrows and chuckles. Some words in Finnish don’t sit well in Spanish. Another one of these is Mitsubishi Pajero. Pajero means masturbator. The name of the car in Spanish-speaking countries was changed to Montero.
THE STORY WAS UPDATED
While what we see in the United States with nationwide protests is remarkable, what happened last week with former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party MP Ano Turtainen was equally significant.
Before mocking the death of George Floyd in a racist tweet, Turtiainen should have understood that there is a lot of sensitivity and support for black people who are constant victims of police violence and brutality in the US and elsewhere.
While Turtiainen has made racist remarks about blacks like in his infamous Ebola Facebook posting in which he claimed that Ebola is nature’s way of keeping overpopulation under control in Africa, Muslims are his usual targets of choice.
Apart from getting kicked out of the PS parliamentary group, further damage for his racism was handed by US-based Elitefts, a bodybuilding equipment company, which terminated its business relationship with Turtiainen’s company, Metal Sport & Gear.
The vast majority of the 240 comments (8.6) are by Finns, who thank the company for its action.
There is a troublesome question that arises from Turtiainen’s clash with the #BlackLivesMovement. What if George Floyd were a Muslim?
Would our collective reaction and outrage be as forceful?
Hopefully, the #BlackLivesMatter movement and our rebuke of US President Donald Trump and his policies will encourage us to condemn and take action against all types of racism wherever it may appear.