Tag: Finland

Thank you Abdirahim Husu Hussein for exposing white Finnish fragility

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Social Democratic Party Helsinki city councilperson Abdirahim Husu Hussein tweeted that all the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and their supporters are racists. If you think of it, he has a point. The PS is not only an Islamophobic party, but it is also a far-right party as well.

A PS councilperson from Nurmijärvi, Maiju Tapiolinna, filed charges against Hussein. She writes in a blog post: “However, this has to be thoroughly investigated since recently in Finland there is strong opposition to racism. I believe this is a very good matter, but we need to eradicate racism against Finns.”

She continues: “I will follow the accusations against Hussein to the end. It is my duty to the party and to my constituents.

Two questions arise from Topiolinna’s blog post: (1) Are these charges for real? A white Finn who claims there is racism towards people of her group? (2) are the PS an ethnic group?

  • Read the original post here.

Apart from the absurdity of Toppolinna’s charges against Hussein, they are a perfect example of what sociologist Robin Diangelo describes as white fragility.

Diangelo states in her best-selling book, “White Fragility,” that most white people “are absolutely not receptive to finding out their impact on other people.” She also mentions that the reaction caused by white fragility is nothing fragile but hostile.

https://youtu.be/kzLT54QjclA

The response to people like Hussein, who remind white Finns about their racism, is so hostile that many people of color prefer to remain quiet than get into a discussion about racism.

Tapiolinna’s plan to press charges against Hussein is, therefore, a good example of how white Finnish fragility reacts.

I commend Hussein for speaking out. If he wouldn’t speak out against the racism that has spread and been encouraged by the PS this decade, who would?

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

Migrant Tales Podcast: An Afro-Nicaraguan in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales
From left to right: Rodolfo Walsh, Harriet Tubman, James Baldwin, and Mercedes Sosa.

Shirlene Green Newball is an Afro-Nicaraguan activist who moved to Finland 13 years ago and lives today in the capital Helsinki. Shirlene tells us in the interview about her life in Finland and those of Afro-Nicaraguans and other minorities. Is Finland a good country to live in if you are a black woman from the Caribbean region?

A Migrant Tales classic from 2012: Don’t trust, don’t give the benefit of the doubt to populist and Islamophobic parties like the PS

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The cartoon was originally posted on May 26, 2012.

Ever since he 2011 parliamentary elections, when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party won 39 seats from 5 seats previously, we have never trusted this party even though the Finnish media gave it the benefit of the doubt.

Not only did the Finnish media give the PS the benefit of the doubt, but too many were fascinated by its racism and Timo Soini’s populism.

After three parliamentary elections, it is now clearer than ever before that the PS is not only an Islamophobic and populist party but far-right as well.

Migrant Tales was right to suspect and be critical of this party: The PS is not only a threat to our growing culturally diverse communities but to the whole country. Supporting such a party is like shooting our democracy and values in the head.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

Why was former PM Sipilä’s government so xenophobic? Will the new government change matters?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Only MP Ozan Yanar, Jani Toivola and for about two years Nasima Razmyar, or 1.5% of all 200 MPs during the 2015-2019 term, were the only visible minorities in parliament. In the present 2019-2021 term, matters aren’t much better: Bella Forsgrén and Hussein al-Taee, who is on sick leave, are the only MPs who are visible minorities.

While there are many reasons why former Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government was one of the most hostile towards visible migrants, especially Muslim asylum seekers, the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* played a crucial role in the government’s tightening of immigration policy and bolstering Finland’s hostile environment.

A group picture of Finland’s MPs taken in 2017. Can you spot a minority? Source: Eduskunta.

With the last parliamentary election in April, new hope arose when the Social Democrats, Green League, Center Party, Left Alliance, and Swedish People’s Party formed a new government.

Even if there is hope that this government will be less xenophobic than the previous one, all of the ministers in Prime Minister Rinne’s government are white. One positive matter, however, is that 11 of the 19 ministers are women.

Can you spot a minister that isn’t white in Prime Minister Antti Rinne’s government? Source: Yle.

So what do these two pictures tell us?

They clearly state that there is too little if no minority representation in parliament as MPs and in the government as ministers.

Am I hopeful that matters will change for the better during Prime Minister Rinne’s government?

Experience has taught me to see deeds first and then offer an opinion later.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

White Finnish media story of the day*: Use words that promote inclusion and public spaces to people of color and other minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A headline in a Helsingin Sanomat news story about US President Donald Trump’s racist tweets to “the Squad,” four progressive women elected to congress in 2018, highlights how the media racializes non-white people in Finland.

While the story uses the Finnish News Agency (STT) and AFP as sources, the copy editors at Helsingin Sanomat could do a much better job instead of labeling people of color as people of migrant origin.

Helsingin Sanomat calls the four congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar, “people of migrant origin” when, in fact, they should be called people of color or minorities.

In my opinion, people of migrant origin is a convenient term to deny people of color and other minorities the right to be equal members of society. How can one be equal if you are constantly reminded with problematic labels that you are outsiders and eternal migrants?

I wonder how the four US congresswomen would react in an interview if a white Finnish journalist called them “people of migrant origin.”

They would, I suspect, be surprised. It would prompt a swift reaction: Who isn’t a person of migrant origin in the United States, they’d ask.

Even if some ethnonationalist groups in Finland like to romanticize that they were chipping stones right after the Ice Age, every white Finn, every single one, in this country is “a person of migrant origin.”

Helsingin Sanomat calls congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar “people of migrant origin.” Give me a break! Read the original story here.

That label used by Finland’s largest newspaper is not only offensive but shows Helsingin Sanomat’s ignorance and prejudice towards people of color. It reveals how racialized the media is when it speaks of non-white people in Finland.

Instead of seeing Finland through racialized lenses, the media should show leadership in promoting inclusion and public spaces to people of color instead of constantly reinforcing their exclusion with labels made up by them.

Does the Finnish language have a translation for the term people of color? If it doesn’t like integration (kotoutuminen) about twenty years ago, it should find one.

In the late-1990s and apart from the term integroituminen, Finland had to invent a new term for integration because there was no appropriate word in the Finnish language.

*White Finnish media story of the day highlights how the national media racializes Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society by maintaining antiquated, even racist and exclusive views about who has the right to belong and call this country their home.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Fighting racism made harder (but not impossible) in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If racism is not an idea to be debated but a social ill that we must fight, how do we challenge such cancer if the second biggest party* in parliament is racist? How do you challenge such a party that is hellbent on redefining racism and fascism to suit their aims and with the help of other mainstream parties?

You give them hell!

Some white politicians and people naively believe that there will be a Hollywood ending between the anti-racists and racists. We will kiss and end up living happily ever after. Even President Sauli Niinistö believes so. He and those white Finns who believe and hope for such an ending are what Martin Luther King Jr. warned us of the white moderates.

How some Finns fight racism by claiming they are (sic!) the silent majority. Cartoon by Ville Rantanen.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

Spreading lies and racism in Finland with the help of conspiracy theories and hearsay

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Racism is not an idea to be debated, it is a social ill that we must fight.

Wouldn’t you know it? One of the whitest countries in Europe, Finland, is afraid of being taken over by Muslims and other people of color. Who else but members of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party are pushing these types of conspiracy theories?

The whole idea that one of Europe’s whitest countries is being taken over by people of color reveals Finland’s deep-bedded racism.

Sounding like the far-right marches of Charlottesville in June 2017, where they chanted “Jews will not replace us,” newly elected vice president Riikka Purra and party chairperson Jussi Halla-aho are playing the same vicious tune.

In a Helsingin Sanomat article, a non-issue like white Finns is discussed. Since nothing of this is happening, and therefore it isn’t news, the story is about the racist and mistaken worldviews of PS politicians like Purra.

Trying to raise a storm in a teacup, Purra gives us some lessons about her far-right credentials. She states that when “population changes” the population changes (duh!), but if it changes a lot it means population replacement. She asks in the tweet a question to Helsingin Sanomat: If 70% of Finland’s population would be German, would Finland’s population change or be replaced?

These types of fear-mongering, that whites will become a minority in their own country, is an old theme used in other countries. Even in a 1966 Reader’s Digest article,”Yhdysvaltain todellinen n-sana ongelma,” (The real n-word problem in the United States), warns readers about how major cities in the US will be soon taken over by blacks.

The article reads: “If the current [birth rate] trend continues, n-words will be by 1980 the majority in Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Chicago, and St. Louis.”

Nothing of the sort happened in 1980 or later. According to the 2010 census, the percentage of black people living in Detroit was 22.8%, Cleveland 20.1%, Baltimore 28.7%, and Chicago 17.0%.

And so what if it happened? Is it that some white people fear being treated the same way they and history have treated minorities like blacks?

Let me put it in the simplest language like in this recent Migrant Tales podcast: “None of us want to be white like you [Halla-aho, Purra, and PS party secretary Simo Grönroos] never mind hold the same racist ideas like you. That would be horrible. However, everyone irrespective of their background is an equal member of society who defines Finnishness in the way he or she wishes. Finnishness does not and will never mean being white.”

Apart from being one of the whitest countries of Europe, Finland has seen over 1.2 million of its nationals emigrate abroad between 1860 and 1999. If all of these emigrants would have stayed in Finland, our population would be today about 7 million.

Moreover, these emigrants that moved mostly to North America before World War 2 and thereafter to Sweden did the most normal and natural thing: they mixed ethnically and culturally with people of other cultures.

Mark my words and read my lips: Finland will be culturally and ethnically diverse because it has always been such a country. Excluding and labeling Others as second-class members of society is what Purra, Halla-aho and the PS are going. They want to build a country where some are more equal than others.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

A Perussuomalaiset nightmare and the shadow of the Danish People’s Party

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales wrote Monday a piece about the catastrophic election result of the Danish People’s Party (DPP) this month and why the result sent shivers up the Perussuomalaiset’s (PS)* spine.

In early June, the DPP saw its popularity nosedive by 12.4 percentage points to 8.7% (16 MPs) from 21.1%(37 MPs) previously.

The PS and DPP are cosy ideological allies.

Certainly, the result in Denmark shows that populist anti-immigration parties are immortal and vulnerable and can be beaten in their own Islamophobic game.

Another matter it shows is that issues like climate change, which explains the rise in popularity of the Greens, is taking over immigration as a top concern of voters.

Islamophobia and xenophobia have their limits, too. You can tighten immigration policy to the extreme but where will it take you? Is the final phase using boxcars to transport people to concentration camps?

The firely Islamophobic langauge and aims of the Danish People’s Paty.

It may well be that immigration in the next parliamentary election in Finland in 2022, which is a pet topic of the PS, may be taken over by climate change.

If I were a member of the PS, I would be worried, very worried about the future of the party.

Doesn’t the PS deny climate change?

This will not go down well with the voters.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

The Danish election result sent shivers up the Perussuomalaiset’s spine

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After the good showing of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in April’s parliamentary election, it is surprising how little media attention the national media gave to the dismal showing of the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DPP) in this month’s election in Denmark. The DPP, which is a close ideological ally of the PS, lost 21 of its seats to end up with 16 seats.

“It’s great that the Danish People’s Party suffered such a loss in the election and it is a new chapter in Danish politics,” a Danish Muslim told Migrant Tales.

The election in Denmark was significant for two reasons: It showed that if traditional parties use the same anti-immigration rhetoric of populist parties they can win elections; populist parties can be beaten in their own Islamophobic game.

Apart from cries by PS vice chairperson Riikka that the party will win the next parliamentary election, the result in Denmark must have sent shivers up hers and the party’s spine.

What is worrying about the Social Democratic election victory in Denmark, and the defeat of the DPP, is that it may offer Finland’s Social Democrats an option to take the wind out of the PS’ sails.

Looking at the ever-anti-immigration rhetoric of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), it is already happening.

The rise of populism and anti-immigration parties in the Nordic region reveal that racism is a powerful political force and that present politicians are at a loss on how to confront it or, possibly, don’t care to challenge it.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.