There is one characteristic when watching for some years Finnish journalists, public officials, politicians and the public debate about racism: Everything will end like in a Hollywood movie, and we’ll live happily forever.
Happiness for some doesn’t hinge on ending racism in this country but on perpetuating it so that white Finns could have, at the cost of minorities, power, and privilege.
This type of wishful thinking permits journalists like Pressiklubi host Sanna Ukkola to provoke and flex her muscles at minorities by putting on an Amerindian feather hairpiece and show a clip of Pekka ja Pätkä blackfaces before diving into a sensitive topic like cultural appropriation.
Read Sanna Ukkola’s opinion piece (in Finnish) here.
Ukkola went even further by – yes, she did this – got in touch with a teacher’s employer at a school to point out that his tweets were out of line. The teacher, Tero Hannula, tweeted a poll asking whether Ukkola should wear a dunce cap, a Perussuomalaiset cap, a Ku Klux Klan hood or a bottle of all-purpose adhesive on her head.
Ukkola also went after blogger Suvi Auvinen and asked for a correction but didn’t make clear what she wanted to be corrected.
Today she even published a rebuttal telling us what a terrible place social media is. Nowhere did she apologize for offending minorities with her actions.
As mentioned in a previous story, last Friday’s Pressiklubi show was a fiasco for a number of reasons. It showed ignorance, white privilege, and that wishful Hollywood ending that made it all happen in the first place.
Too often Finns, who play down and are in deep denial about racism in our society, naively believe that the way to end such a social ill is to hit it with a soft stick. Such a strategy will not make racism go away but strengthen it.
Disagree? Take a look at the hatred and far-right ideology that has become more vocal in recent years. The soft stick approach has only emboldened and strengthened racism and bigotry in Finland.
Are we serious about identifying and tackling racism in Finland? The quality of journalism on Pressiklubi suggests the opposite, or that we’re interested in maintaining the order of things.
If we, however, wanted to fight against racism in Finland and elsewhere, a good source would be feminists’ and women right’s activists who have not only fought but gained greater gender equality in Finland.
Did they get such rights by journalists near-constantly inviting sexists on their shows so we’d hear their toxic side of their story?
Of course not.
Finnish privilege #39
Ukkola has done great harm to the Finnish journalism profession by exposing how she is a servant of power and privilege in this society at the cost of minorities.
Like UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s incompetence is the greatest political windfall to the Labor Party, Ukkola and her brand of journalism help expose what is wrong with Finland when it comes to white Finnish power and privilege.
See also:
- Defining white Finnish privilege #1: I have it and you don’t
- Defining white Finnish privilege #2: Third culture children versus “pupil with immigrant background”
- Defining white Finnish privilege #3 No history, no doctrine, no heroes and no martyrs
- Defining white Finnish privilege #4 Holding the short end of the stick
- Defining white Finnish privilege #5 It’s ok to be a racist
- Defining white Finnish privilege #6 Not having a voice and the media
- Defining white Finnish privilege #7 A definitive guide
- Defining white Finnish privilege #8 Underrated and less intelligent
- Defining white Finnish privilege #9 Mohammad Ali’s insight
- Defining white Finnish privilege #10 I can victimize and make up any story I like about migrants because I’m white
- Defining white Finnish privilege #11: Case Teuvo Hakkarainen
- Defining white Finnish privilege #12: Case Tom Packalén
- Defining white Finnish privilege #13: Case Matti Putkonen
- Defining white Finnish privilege #14: Losing sight of the real issue
- Defining white Finnish privilege #15: Case Halla-ago on the PS
- Defining white Finnish privilege #16: Rosa Emilia Clay and my history versus yours
- Defining white Finnish privilege #17: The Perussuomalaiset and our civil rights
- Defining white Finnish privilege #18: Labeling others according to your prejudice
- Defining white Finnish privilege #19: My rape statistics about your group
- Defining white Finnish privilege #20: Labeling Others to strengthen “us” and “them.”
- Defining white Finnish privilege #21: Who can be a Finn?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #22: From racist, fascist to politician without memory
- Defining white Finnish privilege #23: Greater police powers to monitor migrants and minorities
- Defining white Finnish privilege #24: Becoming a heartless accomplice in wars and people’s suffering
- Defining white Finnish privilege #25: This land is my land, this isn’t your land
- Defining white Finnish privilege #26: Are you an ethnic Finn?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #27: White versus Other media
- Defining white Finnish privilege #28: Are you an ethnic Finn (Part 2)?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine
- White Finnish privilege #30: Whitewashing and racializing the news
- White Finnish privilege #31: The Soldiers of Odin and the Finnish media
- White Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police and “them”
- White Finnish privilege #33: Appropriating our narrative to maintain the status quo, amass more power and privilege
- White Finnish privilege #34: Building a political career on privilege and nativist nationalism
- White Finnish privilege #35: Case Sampo Terho and the ministry of (dis)culture
- White Finnish privilege #36: Hate speech and censorship
- White Finnish privilege #37: The master of near-everything
- Defining white Finnish privilege #38: Cultural appropriation and racism are quaint discussion topics between white Finns
* The column on Finnish white privilege will be headlined today as “Exposing” white Finnish privilege.
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