It is not the first time when Migrant Tales has spotted mistakes by the Finnish media. The latest one involves a story concerning US President Donald Trump’s racist tweets against four minority congresswomen: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar.
The original story, which referred to the four congresswomen as “people of migrant origin,” revealed how Finland’s largest daily labels and racializes non-white people.
About seven hours after the story was published, Helsingin Sanomat corrected the story.
Even if Helsingin Sanomat corrected the headline and the story by taking away the term that referred to the congresswomen as “people of migrant origin,” it is a prime example of how the Finnish media, which is about 99% white, excludes and labels non-white people.
The term “people of migrant origin” or “people of foreign origin” are code or racial buzzwords for a person who is non-white and born outside of the EU. Never or rarely would a white EU citizen or USAmericans be labeled by the media as “person of migrant origin.”
*White Finnish media story of the day highlights how the national media racializes Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society by maintaining antiquated, even racist and exclusive views about who has the right to belong and call this country their home.