Tag: Racism

The Finnish police service’s deep denial of racism among its ranks is no surprise

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The publishing of the racist comments in a secret Facebook group for the Finnish police by online news site Long Play shouldn’t surprise us, even if Interior Minister Paula Risikko  and National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen suggest the contrary. 

A Somali Finn, who spoke on condition of anonymity, wasn’t surprised at all by the news of the secret Facebook group.

“The news doesn’t surprise me at all because the police in Finland are racist,” he said. “They can be racist and nothing happens to them. Who can you trust?”

According to Helsinki Times, some racists comments on the secret group’s wall include ridiculing the asylum seeker who attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree at Helsinki Station Square in March. The comment claimed that the hapless asylum seeker couldn’t even succeed at hanging himself.

Other comments argued that black people are inferior due to their culture and genetic makeup. The policeman substantiated his claim by stating that blacks hadn’t succeeded in any country.

The Facebook group shared articles from anti-immigration and racist groups like online magazine MV-lehti, far-right groups Suomen Sisu and Britain First.

The Facebook group consisted of over 2,800 members, or about one third of Finland’s police force of 7,000,according to Long Play.

Read the full story here.

Despite the Minister Risikko’s and National Police Commissioner Koleheminen’s constant assurances that the police service has zero tolerance for racism, the exposure of the secret Facebook group reveals much wider problems like denial and disrespect towards our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

Continue reading “The Finnish police service’s deep denial of racism among its ranks is no surprise”

A tragic weekend that encourages us to challenge social ills like racism, bigotry and inequality in Finland, Europe and globally

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Over the weekend a lot of things happened: The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) hosted a seminar in Helsinki on anti-migration racism Saturday that was overshadowed by a closed Finnish police Facebook page with racist comments, a comprehensive story on ethnic profiling in Finland, and another terrorist attack in London that left seven killed and 48 injured.

If so much bad news can happen in one day, it shows once again the crucial importance of anti-racism activism, human rights, the rule of law and exposing those who want to capitalize politically on terrorism and water down our inalienable civil rights.

ENAR’s seminar on Saturday in the Eastern Helsinki neighborhood of Myllypuro discussed a lot of salient issues facing Finland such as equality data collection, ethnic profiling, anti-racism education, hate crime laws and migrants in sports.

If there was one clear message from the panelists and the participants that took part in the seminar, it was that activism, lobbying and intersectionality are just a few vital tools to challenge social ills facing our society.

At the end of the seminar, the participants voted in favor of advancing the cause of equality data collection in Finland as well as hate crime legislation.

The aim of the seminar in Helsinki was to debate, identify and prioritize burning issues in Finland concerning racism.

With ENAR’s resources and expertise, the participants plan to further equality collection data collection and improve hate crime legislation.

A follow-up seminar will be held at the end of October.

Source: Facebook.

Three events that overshadowed ENAR’s seminar over the weekend was a racist Finnish police closed Facebook site that was exposed and made Interior Minister Paula Risikko and National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen look awkward after their countless assurances that the police service has zero tolerance for racism.

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Even if politics makes strange bedfellows, Timo Soini’s bed partners are eerie

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Remember the speech below when Timo Soini and the Perussuomalaisiet were riding the crest of a wave after his populist anti-immigration won the parliamentary elections of 2011, when it saw its MPs rise to 39 from 5 in the previous election?

Today as foreign minister of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, Soini wants to keep as big as distance from the UKIP which he once admired because of that party’s anti-EU stance.

If we look at UKIP today, all we can say is that its leader Nigel Farage made a big impact on the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union and then imploded.

Moreover, Farage, who is a “person of interest” in FBI investigation concerning US President Donald Trump and his relations with Russia, called Vladimir Putin the leader he most admired, in a 2014 interview.

One matter that Farage and Soini have in common is that they don’t know how to judge their political allies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl5PviXNRyk

From the historic victory of the PS in 2011, the party is being eaten alive today by the very racist and ultranationalistic forces that Soini unleashed.

The story of the UKIP is a bit similar.

Continue reading “Even if politics makes strange bedfellows, Timo Soini’s bed partners are eerie”

Sampo Terho’s and Jussi Hallo’s political calling to keep Finland white

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Watching the A-studio debate between Sampo Terho and Jussi Halla-aho, the two candidates vying for the leadership of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, was a good example of how low Finland has stooped as a nation.

These two politicians, which have made good careers with the help of social media by spreading hatred, mistrust and hostility towards certain ethnic and religious groups in Finland, parroted their hardline stances on an even tougher immigration policy for the country.

It does seem incredible that a nation like Finland, which claims to be a Nordic welfare state built on social equality, has representatives of a government party speaking of asylum seekers, migrants and cultural diversity as if it were political canon fodder to secure their own political careers and that of the party’s.

 
Watch full debate here.

Terho mentioned that the most important issues facing Finland was the “crisis” brought on by asylum seekers and slow economic growth. Halla-aho was no different: He was worried about EU federalism, immigration and entrepreneurship.

The message of both politicians is clear: Let’s keep Finland white.

Both of them went on record saying that all asylum seekers should be put in detention centers like in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, make Finland officially a monolingual country at the cost of Swedish, and close the borders to asylum seekers even if it meant breaching international agreements.

If these two politicians were able to lead Finland, it wouldn’t take long for it to join the same club as Hungary and Poland, where basic civil rights are being challenged.

* The official translation to Finnish of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is the Finns Party. In our opinion, it is not only a horrible translation, but one that is misguided. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Such terms like the Finns Party of True Finns promote as well 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 thereafter the acronym PS.

How the Finnish government, institutions and President Sauli Niinistö pander to anti-immigration sentiment and groups

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Just the way Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government can give a tacit pat on the back to far-right groups like Suomi Ensin (Finland First), the police give the green light to extremist  vigilante groups, or President Sauli Niinistö give the thumbs up to the Finnish version of the Okie from Muskogee, all of them if they wanted could land a big blow to such racist groups by stating that they are unacceptable and out of touch with our Nordic values. 

Too much complacency and mixed signals from government officials and the president of Finland only feed the ogre and the trolls.

The recent French presidential election was a positive example of how to challenge racism spread by far-right politicians.

Read the full story here.

Emmanuel Macron did not hide his views of Marine Le Pen. He accused her in a national debate of “feeding off” French people’s unhappiness and called her a “parasite” by manipulating voters’ anger usually against minorities and Muslims.

We’ve seen it over and over again. If you are too complacent and try to compete with far-right anti-immigration parties by stealing their rhetoric  you are going to lose. Why would a voter vote for a copy if he or she can get the real thing?

Thus the only way to challenge the onslaught of populist anti-cultural diversity rhetoric polluting Europe these days is by facing it and challenging it head on with little diplomacy, if necessary.

Finland is less of a sad example today of how traditional parties like the Social Democrats tried to use the populist rhetoric of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* before the April 2011 election. Add to the latter a national media that couldn’t tell the difference between racism and its own Nordic Western values and the historic victory of the PS was sealed.

It has taken us in Finland over five years of PS rhetoric and populist arguments since 2011 to understand that the party is nothing but a smokescreen for our own prejudices and racism.

Continue reading “How the Finnish government, institutions and President Sauli Niinistö pander to anti-immigration sentiment and groups”

Finland’s blind spot of bigotry and white privilege is the Perussuomalaiset

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If there is one party that has brought out bigotry, racism and populist far-right ideology as of late it is the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. But Finland is so much in denial about its bigotry and white privilege that it sees no harm in the PS. This means that the government will do little, except offer lip service on how to challenge social ills like racism. 

That blind spot is costing Finland a lot of problems as the election for new PS chairman in early June  shows. PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation in 2012, is the favorite to win the chairmanship of the party against Minister of Culture, Sport, and European Issues Sampo Terho, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Finland’s face of racism: MEP Jussi Halla-aho and Minister of Culture, Sport and European Issues Sampo Terho. Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

According to a poll, 40% said they would vote for Halla-aho  and 26% Terho. The poll showed as well that 25% of those polled were undecided.

If I were a bigot and voted for the PS, I would certainly support Halla-aho because he’s the real thing, not a watered down version like Terho, who has become at least in image a more diluted version of the latter’s racist views.

Continue reading “Finland’s blind spot of bigotry and white privilege is the Perussuomalaiset”

Throwing water and hurling racist insults at black people is ok if you are a white Finn

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales has followed a story that sadly began in the Helsinki neighborhood of Herttoniemi in May 2016. A white woman threw a bucketful of water at three adults and four children from the second floor and started hurling racist insults. Two of the victims were women from Kenya and another one was a white woman from the United States.

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].”

Open-and-shut case, right?

Wrong.

Waweru-Folabit got a letter from the prosecutor almost a year later after the incident:

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.

This case, and especially the prosecutor’s decision to not press charges, is a disheartening example of how the system drags its feet and plays down racism in Finland.

If a white woman throws water at somebody and starts insulting people in a racist manner it may suggest a hate crime.

What would have happened if we’d switch roles and a black woman would throw water at a white Finn and start insulting her? Would she be charged and forced to pay compensation for damages?

On May 23, 2015 Ruth Waweru-Folabit posted this message on her Facebook wall. Migrant Tales reposted it with her permission.

Migrant Tales spoke with Waweru-Folabit about the prosecutor’s decision.

“I would have at least expected an apology from the woman and that my wet clothes she’d pay for sending my clothes to the dry cleaners,” she said. “I thought by pressing on with this case it could be a warning to others and that they cannot get away with such things. I just wanted some kind of justice for what happened.”

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The old and new Cadillac model of Finnish PS racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year.

Malcolm X

If you want to see how racism in Finland is like a Cadillac, check out two Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politicians below. One is of a dying breed and another one of a new “Cadillac” model, Minister of Culture, Sport and European Issues Sampo Terho. 

City councilman, Markus Jukarainen, who was sacked Tuesday from the local PS party of Kuopio represents a dying breed. If you look at Jukarainen’s clothing style below nothing could be picture better the old Cadillac PS politicians: black dress, PS and Finnish flag sicker and the Finnish lion chain hanging conspicuously in front of him.

Jukarainen got sacked from the PS for making inappropriate comments on social media after repeated warnings from the anti-immigration party. Considering that the PS bases in large part its message on racism and Islamophobia, it does look pretty bad in your CV that you got sacked from such a party.

The new Cadillac model of racism in Finland is instead of saying things straight out, you have to fine tune your racism and speak in code.

Terho is a good example as is Jussi Halla-aho, who got sentenced for ethnic agitation in 2012 and breaching the sanctity of religion.

Believe it or not, these type of local politicians exist in Finland. Source: YLE.

A dying PS breed above and a new Cadillac model politician below.

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Defining white Finnish privilege #35: Case Sampo Terho and the ministry of (dis)culture

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why are you so surprised that Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Sampo Terho is Finland’s new minister of culture, sport and European affairs? The Swedish-language HBL expresses dismay and there are many others among us who appear just as awestruck by the appointment. 

Terho, and everything that he represents, are the best example of white Finnish privilege and extreme denial. He is a dangerous example of how official Finland plays down racism and bigotry and its impact on our society.

I’m still amazed by how the Finnish media, politicians and other institutions, who should know better, continue to deny and flirt with fascism, racism, bigotry.

Sampo Terho. Source: perussuomalaiset.fi.

Swedish People’s Party chairwoman Anna-Maja Henriksson of the opposition naturally sees Terho as the wrong person to head the new ministry. Terho has led the charge with other groups as chairman of the Association of Finnish Culture and Identity to undermine the role of the Swedish language in this country.

Swedish is the second official language of Finland.

Continue reading “Defining white Finnish privilege #35: Case Sampo Terho and the ministry of (dis)culture”