Tag: A-Studio

The PS is fascist and racist to the core

Posted on by Migrant Tales

On Wednesday’s A-studio talk show, viewers got once again a taste of the depths of fascism and racism of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) through MP Joakim Vigelius. One of the matters that surprised me was how the host, Petri Raivio, did not stop to fact-check Vigelius’ brazen lies.

Since the Finnish media rarely fact-checks or takes a clear stand in its editorials on migration policy issues, spreading lies and half-truths by xenophobes is fairly easy.

Apart from being a charlatan, Vigelius insulted on the show Social Democrat Vice President Nasima Razmyar with his racist remarks. The PS MP maintained that people from the Middle East and Africa should not come as quota refugees to Finland next year because they “don’t integrate” and are “a threat to society.”

He argued, in front of a woman who was born in Afghanistan that people like her are mostly unemployed, cannot live off their means, have problems following laws, and are prone to commit crimes even if she is a living example of the opposite of his lies.

PS MP Joakim Vigelius. Source Yle

Another incredible matter that came to light on the talk show was his exaggeration and racism about Europe’s migration problem. Imagine, Vigrlius is worried about such a problem even if Finland had last year 5,372 asylum seekers, according to Statistics Finland.

The asylum seekers coming to Europe are only a drop in the bucket of all those in the world fleeing strife.

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A-studio’s Marja Sannikka: From using the n-word on television to normalizing the term “harmful” migration

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

When my wife told me about Tuesday’s A-studio talk show, my instant reaction was who the host was. With some dread, I found out that Marja Sannikka hosted the show. The A-studio host has made a name for herself on her shows by labeling and victimizing asylum seekers and minorities.

The latest incident was on Tuesday when Sannikka didn’t object to the PS guest, Simo Grönroos, a far-right Suomen Sisu association member, using the word “harmful” immigration. The PS is the only party in Finland that uses the derogatory term to label and victimize certain groups like Muslims and Africans.

One approach to such a toxic description of asylum seekers and migrants is if people can be placed into good and bad groups. Other favorites of the PS in their quest to tar-and-feather certain migrants are “cheap labor” and “social welfare migrants,” among others.

We believe each migrant is an individual, and labeling them in groups and subgroups is racist.

Source: Twitter

Here are some of Sannikka’s talk show “hits:”

  • Perussuomalaiset’s (PS)* Simo Grönroos labels particular asylum seekers (not Ukrainians) as “harmful migrants.” The PS is the only party that uses such a derogatory term. Sannikka did nothing to stop or question Grönroos’s use of the term but asked her guests what they thought about “harmful” migrants. May 9, 2023
  • PS MP Sebastian Tynkkynen, convicted three times for ethnic agitation, was invited to host Sannikka’s A-studio to talk about freedom of expression, ethnic agitation, and burning the Quran.
  • Sannikka helped spread fear in Finland about minority youth gang violence. She introduced the topic like a crime thriller:“ Knives, violence, revenge. Youth gang violence increases at a worrying pace (sic!). October 25, 2022
  • Guest Esko Valtaoja used the n-word twice on her talk show without any objections from Sannikka (see caption below). November 21, 2021 While she said nothing on her talk show, she later apologized for the n-word incident.

Source: European Islamophobia Report 2021.

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Exposing white Finnish privilege #91: The right to generalize and victimize minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

Those who are worried about the blow to the credibility of the security guards due to several scandals that even led to the death of a woman in Espoo are quick to point out one should not jump to conclusions and label all security guards and the sector.

True, we should always be careful not to generalize.

There is, however, something wrong with that defense. The same people who are saying that we must not generalize are the ones who constantly generalize about migrants.

President Sauli Niinistö, who is no friend of Finland’s culturally diverse communities, added more feathers to tarred minority youths in the ongoing debate on youth crime. Source: Yle

Downplaying the problem is also an important part of the narrative about white crime versus crime committed by minorities.

Continue reading “Exposing white Finnish privilege #91: The right to generalize and victimize minorities”

Yle A-studio host Marja Sannikka does it again and cannot get migrants off her mind

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A-studio Host Marja Sannikka* hosted a disastrous talk show with Renaz Ebrahimi last year and, recently, a program on youth gangs.  Both were disingenuous and unfair to minorities. 

Well, Sannikka is at it again, and wouldn’t you know that she had something lowly to say about migrants?

Tuesday’s A-studio talk show was about civil disobedience, and Sannikka asked an environmental activist if her civil disobedience would include crimes committed by migrants.

WTF?

That is pretty far-fetched and reveals that Sannikka has an agenda against minorities and migrants.

Marja Sannikka on A-studio. Source: A-studio.

*Thank you Ambrosius Wollsten for the heads up!

The sources of Finland’s far-right problem: downplaying and denial

Posted on by Migrant Tales

“The main agents of ideological violence are not isolated ‘lone wolves’ but are usually interconnected with communities, non-violent agents and legal entities, at times even including connections to law enforcement personnel.”

Mihai Varga

Over two weeks have elapsed since the police announced the detention of five white-Finn terrorist suspects in the Western Finnish city of Kankaanpää. Reaction to the detention has varied, but one matter is for sure: Denial shrouds our ability to identify and challenge the social ill.

The terrorist suspects of Kankaanpää are no joke. They meant business but does Finland mean business when challenging such groups? Is our exceptionalism blinding us from tackling the social ill? Photo: Police

Denial comes in many ways:

  • The terrorist suspects are a lone detached splinter group
  • Even if the suspects had committed acts of violence and promoted their far-right white nationalist ideology in Kankaanpää before, the rector of the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (SAMK), Jari Multisilta, downplayed the threat
  • Contrary to what some students felt that SAMK hadn’t given them enough support, Multisilta was quoted as saying in Yle that there was no threat to the fine arts campus in Kankaanpää by the suspects and that the authorities had not been in touch with the university
  • The fact that the police had not been in contact with SAMK about the threat reveals how they may have downplayed the problem in Kankaanpää
  • In 2015, a new asylum reception center was razed to the ground; we still don’t know who the possible suspects are and if like-minded groups carried it out
  • Yle A-studio airs over a week after the detentions a talk show about far-right violence with researcher Leena Malkki and police Superintendant Jari Tapanen
  • If the detained suspects were Muslims, a talk show and reaction would be much swifter
  • In the talk show, the rise of far-right terrorist violence is blamed on social media and an issue facing young people
  • There is no mention about how Finnish society and the police are responding to the rise of far-right terrorism and ideology
  • There is no mention about how Islamophobia can be a bridge between far-right ideology and terrorism
  • Why didn’t the A-studio program bring up how the rise of populist parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, far-right associations like Suomen Sisu among their ranks and their close links with even neo-Nazi groups promote far-right ideology are fertile ground for acts of terrorism?
  • The PS is the biggest party of the Kankaanpää city council
  • Why do we still know so little about this group and other ones that may be conspiring to carry out acts of terrorism?

Using rape statistics to fuel ethnic prejudism and racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This week’s A-Studio report on the ”high” number of rape convictions of foreigners in Finland, and another one published by Tampere-based daily Aamulehti in April, not only shed light on “a problem” in Finland but expose the prejudice of the media and Finnish society concerning immigrants.

The exact arguments that the above-mentioned stories use to drive home their point are eerily similar to those spread by Finland’s anti-immigration groups.

A-Studio uses 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year to suggest that there is a ballooning rape problem in Finland by foreigners.

While rape, like any crime, must be strongly condemned by society, such statistics should not be used to reinforce our prejudices of certain groups. This I believe is the underlying problem of both reports by A-Studio and Aamulehti.

Migrant Tales found out in spring that the author of the Aamulehti story, Toni Viljanmaa, is a freelance journalist. Did he offer the story to the daily on sensationalist grounds in order to get it published? We don’t know.

Whenever journalists begin to editorialize their news stories in order to drive home their personal views, it’s the credibility of the story that is undermined. Taking into account that a lot of journalist at YLE are card-carrying members of  different political parties, we do not know what sympathies the journalist of the A-Studio report, Tuomas Kerkkänen, may have for the Perussuomalaiset (the Finns Party).

After the A-Studio report was published on Wednesday, tabloids such as Iltalehti picked it up and asked if sex education shouldn’t form part of the immigrants’ integration program.

While new information is always essential for a newcomer in order to read more effectively the cultural codes of a group, these types of stories, which were even published by Joensuu-based daily Karjalainen, are just as offensive as the A-Studio and Aaamulehti stories. They imply that foreign men are prone to rape due to their ethnic background.

While most rapes are committed by white Finns in this country, why aren’t the backgrounds of these convicted rapists revealed with the same enthusiasm? Are men in Eastern Finland more inclined to rape than, say, in Western Finland?

Making such a claim would be preposterous especially when there are so few cases to begin with.

Lee Walton (@eclat521) retweeted this blog entry.  He writes: “ridiculous- as an immigrant should I have been “taught” that rape is wrong? It’s against the law in UK, & ALL other countries!”