Tag: Racism

Exposing white Finnish privilege #63: Silence and acting dumb are the swords of institutional racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There is one matter that makes my blood boil when there is a clear case of racist behavior, but the person hearing it, who can be your boss, remains silent, hoping that the uncomfortable situation passes over and returns to “normal.”

“Back to normal” in this case means that nothing has changed and challenged. Matters will remain as they are. Get over it.

A good example of how strong institutional racism is in Finland is a Council for Mass Media (JSN) ruling against Järviradio for playing (April 6) a racist song by Irwin Godman called “Sand n-word and n-word clown.”

The song, which is shamelessly racist and offensive to brown and black people in Finland, was released in 1989. It has been seen on YouTube three million times.

One wonders why these types of songs are played on Youtube.

To add more salt to injury, the Järviradio commentator played the song on the request from a listener who said, “The Perussuomalaiset* are taking back Finland.”

Another coating of populist racism.

White Finnish privilege #63

If the radio commentator should have known better that Goodman’s song is racist and inappropriate, which the JSN ruling reinforced, the editor of Järviradio, Markku Mäenpää, appears clueless.

Mäenpää said that he has no opinion about the song or the lyrics.

The only reason why Mäenpää does not have an opinion about Goodman’s racist song is that he does not think the lyrics are racist and offensive even after 30 years when the song was released.

Mäenpää’s statement is a shameful example of how institutional racism and prejudices find protection and see another day in Finland.

Goodman’s songs are racist, and his opinions about migrants only reinforce that he was multiculturally challenged.

One of his “hit” songs was “Marcello Magaroni.”

See also:

* The far-right 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.

Halla-aho’s anti-immigration soundbites and why we should not relax hate speech laws

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Halla-aho gave us on Yle Ykkösaamu his usual anti-immigration blah blah and why Finland should relax its hate speech laws.

In the interview, Halla-aho, who was convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012, defended the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association and played down PS MP Juha Mäenpää’s description in parliament that asylum seekers are a non-human “invasive species.”

Mäenpää is the same politician who stated in 2015 that “God had answered his prayers” after an asylum reception center was razed by fire.

Read the full story here.

While these types of counterarguments by Halla-aho, who has steered the party in into the far-right ideological lap of leaders like Lega’s Matteo Salvini and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, have no significance because the PS leader would even find arguments to justify the rise to power of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler in 1933.

Helsinki University criminal law professor Kimmo Nuotio threw some cold water on Halla-aho’s claim that hate speech laws have no place in an open society. Apart from pointing out that the PS’ proposal is political, he did not consider the ongoing debate healthy for democracy.

Moreover, the number of ethnic agitation cases that reach the courts are still modest as the table below shows.

Ethnic agitation cases that were taken to court in 2018. Even if such cases rose by 138.5% last year to 31, it is still a tiny amount. Source: Justice Ministry.

“Personally, I find this type of discussion harmful,” Nuotio said, “it’s an attempt to undercut the basis for these laws.”

One matter that the Ykkösaamu journalist should have asked is why do we have laws against hate speech? The answer is obvious. Without them, it would be open season for racists and parties like the PS openly harass, attack, label and socially exclude vulnerable groups like Muslims for their political gain.

The argument used by Halla-aho to not open Finland’s labor markets to outside the EU is equally deceiving. Adding the usual fear-mongering that outside the EU there are half a billion people who could come to work, he claimed that such workers would drive down salaries.

Possibly valid to some extent, such people in our labor market like now would force our authorities to do a much better job in regulating markets and ensuring that exploitation does not become the norm.

* The far-right 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 real MP Jani Mäkelä and how the PS also waters the poisonous fruit of anti-Semitism in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

A tweet, which alleges Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jani Mäkelä, stating that “without SS troops, Finlan would have lost the Continuation War (1941-44), is from a fake account. If this is true, we apologize for the mix-up.

I wrote a comment to PS MP Mäkelä below after he asked me to “Stop spreading fake news and remove this post and related web article, before I need to take further action!”



Do you believe that PS MP Mäkelä will answer my question?

I’m not holding my breath.

What Mäkelä thinks about the SS and its role in the Continuation War (1941-44) would be of interest, considering that the PS is a far-right radical right party that has links with neo-Nazi and fascist groups like Suomen Sisu.

One of PS MP Mäkelä’s campaign platform was, like all of the candidates who got elected, anti-immigration. The tweet below and his reaction to it show what he thinks about Muslims and cultural diversity in Finland.

If it were for him, minorities like Muslims would be at the total mercy of the PS’ hostile Islamophobia.

Mäkelä did not like at all Police Chief Inspector Jari Taponen’s tweet: “Even in Islandic politics hate speech has become more common. The rhetoric follows the same European formula, where the targets of this rhetoric are arriving East European migrants and Muslims. Politicians insist on their hate speech banning Sharia Law, banning mosques and banning the Burka, among others.”

Irrespective of the fake tweet, we all know that the PS is an Islamophobic, xenophobic, homophobic, and far-right radical right party. We should not be surprised that their anti-immigration populist rhetoric has fueled the hostile environment most likely fueled hate speech against Finland’s small Jewish community.

Migrant Tales reported in 2017 how the Jewish community of Helsinki felt threatened by rising hate speech.

“I will not say that it is only the extreme right that is directing this [online] hate speech against the Jewish community,” said Yaron Nadbornik, the president of the Jewish Community of Helsinki. ”Let’s just say that they are people from different ideologies that write online thousands of hate comments against Jews.”

All those who defend the SS role in Finland are blind to the atrocities committed and such group’s complicity in the extermination of the Jews.

We have heard of the SS death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, who are responsible for murdering three million Jews.

If there is a good example of why anti-Semitism has flourished in Finland like other forms of racism, it is Mäkelä’s tweet above.

See also:

The City of Ylivieska in Finland awards anti-Semite with distinction (September 24, 2014)

The Jews of Finland (August 27, 2013)

* The far-right 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.

Who needs a commissioner for protecting European values? What are “our” European values anyway?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why does the European Commission need a commissioner for the protection of “our” European values? Protection of what “European” values need protecting?

Are social exclusion and racism European values? What about the over 34,361 migrants who have died to May 2018 while crossing the Mediterranean Sea? What about Islamophobia? Fascism? Our unrepentant colonial past, among other dark spots?

What are our common values? Human rights? Respect for diversity and social equality? Are we hypocrites or do these laws only apply to white Europeans?

Apart from the 25 new commissioners being white, it’s clear that little will change concerning inequality and racism with EU President-elect Ursula von der Leyenwith.

The EU is such a hostile place for some minorities these days that even the mere suggestion of a little diversity causes a hostile knee-jerk reaction.

QUOTE OF THE DAY (Riikka Purra): “Finnish culture is better than many others”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A racist is an individual, always an individual, who does not like people based on race – must be conscious – and who intentionally seems to be mean to them.

Robin DiAngelo, sociologist

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

In English, we have a lot of words for bullshit: baloney, hogwash, crap, wise tales, poppycock, malarkey, snow job, lies, deception, rubbish, and many, many more. Some of these words pop up in my head when I hear politicians from the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party speak about their pet punching bag: migrants, asylum seekers, and minorities.

If we look at DiAngelo’s definition of a racist, it sits well with many, if not all, members of the PS.

One of these politicians is Frist Vice President Riikka Purra. She had the gall to tweet the following question after appearing on Susanne Päivärinta’s talk show: “In your opinion, is it racist to call an African rapist human scum?”

Do we need to answer her offensive and racist question, or does her question answer the question?

PS First Vice-President Riikka Purra writes a lot about immigration, but she can’t get her facts straight. She could not mention in Susanne Päivärinta’s talk show what were the three most prominent national groups in Finland. Since she doesn’t know, Purra likes to make up lies and spread conspiracy theories about migrants, especially people of color.

Apart from her fear-mongering, about how white Finns will be taken over by people of color, she uses terms like “harmful immigration” and “mass immigration” to justify her racism and hatred of Muslims, Africans, Middle Easterners and people of color in general.

Considering that Finland is one of the whitest countries in Europe, Purra’s claim that white Finns will become a minority is ludicrous. Considering that Finland is the second-most violent country for women to live in the EU, it is disingenuous of her to state that Finland has one of the best cultures in the world for women.

Purra disagreed that Finland is such a violent place for women. She criticized the methodology of the study.

The PS politician should take a look at the mirror and listen to her anti-immigration rhetoric and ask if this is how people of “one of the best cultures in the world” speak to and treat asylum seekers?

She also mentioned that when a person becomes a naturalized Finn it does not make the person “an ethnic Finn.”

What is an “ethnic Finn?” Is there only one type of Finn?

Certainly not, Purra. There are today, as there were before, many types of Finns. There are Afrofinn, Muslim Finns, Russian Finns, and the subcategories are almost endless.

I will say it once again: Purra is a disingenuous politician whose anti-immigration rhetoric is a sham.

* The far-right 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.

QUOTE OF THE DAY (Riikka Purra): Human scum and racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* First Vice- President Riikka Purra asked in a tweet: “In your opinion, is it racist to call an African rapist human scum?”

Indeed, it is racist! It is especially racist if you are a white politician who is a member of an Islamophobic and Afrophobic party.

Can a human, irrespective of the crime, be referred to as subhuman?

Her question is a bit similar to what former UK Prime Minister David Cameron called migrants trying to enter Britain as a “swarm,” which is a term applied for fish and insects.

It is not appropriate for anyone, especially politicians, to refer to people as “scum” or a “swarm.”

Purra, who hates asylum seekers and is near-constantly spreading conspiracy theories tweets: “In your opinion, is it racist to call an African rapist human scum?”

In the interview with Susanne Päivärinta on Wednesday, the chair of the parliamentary administration committee, which oversees immigration policy, Purra could not name the three biggest national groups in Finland.

She told Päivärinta that they were the Russians, Estonians, and Somalis. Wrong. The three biggest groups are Estonians, Russians, and Iraqis.

Purra talks big and spreads Islamophobic fear but has problems with her facts like what percentage of foreign nationals live in Finland.

She didn’t even know.

Purra is a disingenuous politician whose anti-immigration rhetoric is a sham.

* The far-right 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 Yle is partial and toothless: Purra, the stellar rise of a white Finnish supremacist

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The critical reporting and credibility of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) have suffered in recent times star reporters quitting and parties like the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* influencing editorial content from the board.

There is no better example of Yle’s partiality and toothless reporting than a recent political human interest article about Riikka Purra, PS first vice-president who spreads white Finnish supremacist ideology.

One of Purra’s pet topics is how white Finns will become a minority in their country due to non-white immigration. She spreads such far-right fear-mongering despite knowing that Finland is one of the whitest countries in Europe.

Articles like the one below by Riikka Uosukainen, which raise Purra to a pedal stool because of her stellar rise in politics and possibly the next leader of the PS, are the partial and toothless stories that Yle writes uncritically today.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Imagine, in Finland today that a politician’s stellar rise hinges on spreading hatred and conspiracy theories about migrants. This is how low our country and Yle have stooped.

If we look at these pictures in the story, it is clear that the reporter likes Purra and wants to give her the best image she can in the story.

That is what serious journalists blame opinionated and toothless journalism for spreading racism and hostility towards migrants and minorities.

In the last picture with the new party secretary, Simo Grönroos, the reporter describes him as “a nationalist” who founded Suomen Sisu, a far-right Nazi-spirited association.

Just like Purra and her white Finnish supremacist conspiracy theories, Suomen Sisu is against Finns marrying foreigners because it would be bad for “racial hygiene.”

The article is one more slippery slope of how Finland is normalizing racism and white supremacy.

* 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 was 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.

Finland and the police should wake up to the menace of hate speech and hate crime

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Helsinki city councilperson Abdirahim Husu Hussein received a letter Wednesday with a death threat and a piece of rope tied as a noose. While it is clear why this happens, we should ask why it continues to happen and with such impunity.

Having lived in Finland for many years, one matter I learned at an early stage is that there is a strong racist undercurrent in Finnish society. This ever-toxic murmur of that undercurrent has turned today into a mix of blind rage and a sense of impunity.

Another death threat was sent to Helsinki city councilperson Abdirahim Husu Hussen Wednesday. The note reads: “ “N-word. Don’t mix in what Finnish politicians do. You heard of Martin Luther King. He was an n-word and look what happened to him. Greetings from the Ku Klux Klan.” Source: Facebook.

Do you need more hard proof? The sources of such hatred are more than clear since words have consequences.

The challenge is if we want to open ou eyes to such threats and actually do something about them.

One Finnish party that bases 90% of its political message on catering to the anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam vote bursted into the political scene with a vengeance in the 2011 parliamentary election. In a matter of four years, it saw the number of MPs rise from 5 to 39.

While there are many factors fo the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in 2011 and during this decade, one matter is for certain: its anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam message has struck voter gold.

Too many of us, not Migrant Tales, played down the PS victory of 2011 and what it meant for the country. “The Perussuomalaiset* will implode soon,” was a common excuse you heard for not doing anything.

Even if it is clear that there is a connection between the rise of the PS and hostility towards migrants and minorities, the police, politicians, the media, and policy-makers share equal responsibility.

Finland has some of the best laws that promote social equality and ensure that everyone, irrespective of his or her background, is equal before the law. The problem, however, is that such laws are not enforced as they should.

If we are all equal before the law, why is it that in 2019 white Finnish women make 0.80 euros compared with a white Finnish male’s euro? Why do migrants make on average 0.50 euros, according to researcher Pekka Myrskylä?

The answer to that question is clear: The police, like society, don’t consider racism and discrimination a high priority. Moreover, convictions for racism and hate speech are too lenient, even a joke in some cases. A perpetrator can be slapped with symbolic fines totalling 60 euros.

Such fines, as PS MP Ano Tutiainen said earlier this year, are “a feather in one’s cap.”

Hussein’s death threat is just another example of how ineffective our society is in combating racism and hatred. If Finland does not wake up to the social ill, matters may speed out of control like they have in the United States and recently in neighboring Norway.

Racism and hate are like a rabid dog that some politicians walk to impress and lure their voters. They forget, however, that that dog knows no master and can bite back hard, very hard.

* The far-right 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.

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Facebook Ali Rashid: Personal or racial space?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: Ali Rashid, who is a board member of Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland, posted something that many foreigners, especially people of color, face in Finland. If people fear sitting next to you because of your ethnic background, do you think they believe you are an equal member of society? Are you socially equal or socially unequal in their eyes?

Go to original posting here.

This post was reposted with permission.

Good synonyms for “racism-free zone” are hypocrisy, approval of institutional racism, let’s play hide racism and go seek with denial

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

Today is a politically charged day In Turku, where neo-Nazis, other far-right members like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) will join hands to remember the second anniversary of the Turku stabbings when a then eighteen-year-old Moroccan went on the rampage killing two and wounding eight.

One of our writers, Reija Härkönen, will give a talk at the event.

Terrorism, as we saw last weekend in Norway, is nothing to take lightly. When, however, far-right pundits and parties like the PS us it to further their racist political agenda, then we have a problem.

Apart from Tuku, Finland has had its share of school terrorist shootings like in Kauhajoki, Jokela and Myyrmanni. Source: Facebook.

Should we be surprised that an MP, Vilhelm Junnila, of the PS will give a talk at the far-right rally today in Turku? Why should we be surprised? Last year, PS MP Ritva Elomaa and two members of the party participated in the neo-Nazi event.

Do you believe that Finland is doing enough to challenge the encroachment of far-right ideology and nip racism in the bud?

Not at all. As we have mentioned in previous posts, Finland’s biggest challenges are far-right ideology and racism; being a too white society, one where cultural and ethnic diversity are seen as threats.

Let’s take a look at the latest example of hypocrisy: A sign on the door of the Turku Main Library is a perfect example of how Finland is reluctant to challenge racism and the far right.

A tweet (see below) by Tiago Silva notes: “Taking into account that @TurkuKirjasto [Turku City Library] offers tomorrow [Sunday] at the main library to some #äärioikeisto:laiselle [far-right organizations] the opportunity to spread white replacement conspiracy theories, the sign on the library’s door is a bit ironic.”

The tweet reads: “Taking into account that @TurkuKirjasto [Turku City Library] offers tomorrow [Sunday] at the main library to some #äärioikeisto:laiselle [far-right organizations] the opportunity to spread white replacement conspiracy theories, the sign on the library’s door is a bit ironic.”

Could not agree more with Silva’s tweet. It is not only ironic but hypocritical.

Diversity is one of the best medicines that Finland can take today to cure itself of its ever-growing far-right populism and racism.

* The far-right 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.