Migrant Tales insight: As the politicians and media in Finland turn their backs on the ever-increasing racism in this country, there are a few brave people who don’t remain silent. A brave young woman in Lahti preferred not to remain silent at a bar as two black men were being harassed at a bar in a racist manner Saturday.
If we reflect on what happened, one question rises above the rest: What kind of a country are we living in if a total stranger can insult and harass two black men in public in a racist manner? Is it a country that is living deep in denial and where racism has become so widespread that people can react in such a manner because it is the most normal thing?
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“I went to a bar in Lahti on Saturday and just as I was leaving a Finnish who was accompined by two others started insulting two black men. He told them to leave Finland because noboy had asked them to come here.
The argument got more tempered and that’s when I decided to act and went in between them. I asked the Finnish man why he was yelling at the black men.
Lahti advertises on its web site that it is “an ideal place for businesses.”
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The Finnish man then told me ‘go fuck myself!’
He then continued: ‘Have you lived in some cave?! Don’t you read the news?! Don’t you know that these people come here to rape our women and children?!’
The Finnish man said he had a two-month-old baby and said he was worried she might be raped by the men. He also blamed them for paying more taxes so they could get social welfare.
‘I hope that your future child gets raped by them,’ he told me.
Then my friends came to my side and a fight erupted between them and the three Finnish men. Out of nowhere a total stranger came and punched one of my firends in the jaw.
The police came but the person that punched my friend got away.
I cried a lot that night. I couldn’t believe that people were so cruel.”
