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.
Minister of Culture, Sport and European Affairs Sampo Terho is the new breed of PS politicians have hid their racism with the help of a tie and suit. Source: Perussuomalaiset.
* 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 xenophobia. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and thereafter the acronym PS.