As xenophobic parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party blame visible minorities for growing coronavirus infections, the same is being spread by people by people who should know better.
The rise of a racist party like the PS during the 2010s, which reinforced many Finns’ xenophobic views, suggests that labeling and racializing will continue to pick up as do deaths caused by the coronavirus.
While exceptionalism and many other blindspots may keep us from seeing inequality in our health care system in Finland and other EU countries, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) is spot on by stating, the #inequality doesn’t just make pandemics like #Covid_19 worse – it could cause them.
Despite such good insight by ENAR, PS MPs like Veikko Valin offer their own mumbo jumbo explanation as to why COVID-19 infections are higher among the Somali-speaking community.
He tweets: “Somali-speakers in Helsinki have nine times higher infections than white Finns. They claim it is because they have a poor command of the Finnish language. I suspect it has to do with eating with their fingers, having large families, bending over at mosques, and hanging out all day at shopping malls. Or it could be Trump’s fault.”
Disgraceful and racist. Ladies and gentlemen, an MP of the PS.
