An example of you-can-eat-your-racist-cake-and-have-it journalism: The chief executive of a private security firm posts a video wearing a uniform about how a member of the Romany minority shoplifts. The security firm’s representative uses his personal TikTok account to publish the racist post. The security guard chief executive took down the video after a representative…
Tag: Romany minority
Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Why are shoplifting Romany women news?
Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, which has had a murky history for publishing and attacking Somalis and other migrants in the 1990s, publishes a story about two Romany women who shoplift 2,600 euros of merchandise. Certainly, shoplifting is a crime, but what about when a tabloid publishes a story that reinforces stereotypes about a certain group? Considering that Ilta-Sanomat was…
Police ask Romanian Roma “to leave” Tampere
A group of Romania Roma were woken up by the police in the middle of the night as they slept in their cars in a semi-abandoned parking lot of a match factory in Tampere, reports Aamulehti. According to the Romanian Roma, the police asked them to leave Tampere, which is a clear breach of their right to…
Romany minority discrimination case sparks government outrage in Sweden
The Swedish government has called a crisis meeting due to a discrimination case of a Roma woman at Stockholm’s Sheraton Hotel, reports Helsingin Sanomat. The woman, who was invited by the government to speak at a seminar on discrimination of the Roma in Sweden’s capital, was escorted with her traditional dress out of the hotel’s…
Finland’s Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen’s blog entry on the Roma reveals why Europe has done so little to help this minority
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen’s opinion piece on Uusi Suomi about the hardships that the Romany minority face in Europe today. As she expressed concern about their plight, I could not forget her intolerant views of gays, non-Christian refugees and her silence in the face of strict…
The Roma blonde girl in Greece and the shadow of intolerance
When I first read about Maria, the blonde girl that was discovered in Greece belonging to an unrelated Roma couple, a number of disturbing questions arose. One of these was an obvious one: Why so much interest by the media? It would take a while for the red herring to be exposed. It eventually became…
Why did a Finnish court absolve two policemen of apparent racist conduct?
When reporting some stories, denials and what is not said are the spotlights that reveal the real story. A flat denial by the police that ethnic profiling doesn’t occur suggests that it is probably more widespread than we think. A court ruled on Monday that the actions of two Helsinki policemen, who used excessive physical…
Artist Kiba Lumberg: “Don’t box me in!”
In order to understand Kiba Lumberg, 57, you need to know some Finnish history, the plight of minorities like the Roma, and what it is like to live in worlds shaded by different hues of grey. Since this story is about an artist who doesn’t want to conform to set norms imposed on her by…
Internet policeman Marko Forss mildly reprimanded by deputy ombudsman for tweeting stereotypes of the Roma
Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman Jussi Pajuoja mildly reprimanded Internet policeman Marko Forss for tweeting a so-called joke about the Roma, reports YLE. The personal tweet, as Migrant Tales reported in November, spread and strengthened stereotypes about the Roma. What did Forss, who was named policeman of the year in 2011, tweet? “Some funny things happen in police…
Interior Minister Räsänen disagrees with findings of police report on the Romany minority
Migrant Tales asked Monday what kinds of arguments will politicians now come up with to criminalize begging after a police report didn’t reveal any links between Romany beggars and human trafficking and organized crime. The police report not only exposed shameful urban legends used to victimize poor Romanies from Romania and Bulgaria, who make 10-20 euros a…