After Helsingin Sanomat Monday published a story where oddly termed four progressive US congresswomen of color as “people of migrant origin,” state broadcaster Yle used the same term on Monday for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar.
Even if Finland’s largest daily corrected the story, the old headline was still found in some tweets from Helsingin Sanomat.
Not only have members of “the Squad” revealed Trump’s racism towards people of color, but they helped expose it here in Finland and how our leading media talks about people who are not white.
Here is a simple definition for the media: If you are a USAmerican or Finnish citizen, you are a USAmrican and Finn. Considering the racism that exists in our societies, it is too much for some to stomach this fact.
This means that representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley, and Omar are USAmericans who call themselves people of color. Disagree? Tell me a single person from the United States who isn’t of migrant origin.
The use of the term by some Finnish journalists shows how far off Finland still is from being an inclusive culturally and ethnically diverse society.
What do you think a congresswoman of the Squad would react if a Finnish journalist would refer to any of them in an interview as “people of migrant background?”
I suspect there would first be a smile and then irritation.
“Is that what you call people of color in Finland,” they may ask.
*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.