Here is an interesting story in the Washington Post on racial profiling, a practice whereby law enforcement uses race or a person background as a grounds for criminal suspicion.
It is only logical that if their is a greater tendency to suspect blacks versus whites in the United States, certainly more people of this group will be arrested and end up in the criminal statistics.
The article in the Washington Post is about the arrest of a prominent black professor and the treatment he received from the police due to racial profiling. The article reads:
Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has spent much of his life studying the complex history of race and culture in America, but until last week he had never had the experience that has left so many black men questioning the criminal justice system.
We had a few weeks ago a lively debate about crimes committed in Finland by certain national group. While this is no attempt to defend such crimes, a question arises: are certain national and ethnic groups such as the Roma especially harrassed by the Finnish police?
Would you like to share your experiences with us?
A foreigner told me a hilarious story a long time ago about three dark-skinned foreigners driving in a Skoda when then Czechosolovakian President Vaslak Havel visited Finland. The police pulled the car over and asked the occupants where they were from.
One of these foreigners thought that the police had especially pulled them over because they drove in a Czech car when President Havel was visiting the country.
I wonder if professional assassins would act in such a conspicuous manner?
Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.
African Proverb
When was the first time that immigrants demonstrated for greater rights in Finland? Two major demonstrations by non-Finns took place in 1974 and 1982. The first one was by some 50 Pakistanis who marched from Turku to Helsinki because they were going to be deported by the authorities after they came with expectations of finding work in Finland.
Eila Kännö (1921-2009), the cantankerous Aliens’ Office head during 1970-84, was a state within a state. An interesting matter to investigate would be the relationship her office had with Pakistani honorary consul, Arne Roiha. In order for Pakistanis to get a residence and work permit in Finland, they had to get the green light from Roiha, who ran and employed Pakistanis at three restaurants in Helsinki: Kaisaniemi, Ässäpata and Klippan. Roiha fled to Florida from Finland due problems with the Finnish tax authorities.
The second demonstration, which took place on October 19, 1982, was the largest march to ever take place in independent Finland. Some 300 foreigners and Finns marched from Helsinki University Porthania Hall to the Eduskunta (parliament).
The march, which was the top story on the 8:30 news, received wide attention by the Finnish media. A day before the demonstration, former Aliens’ Office head Eila Kännö had vowed to throw in jail those foreigners that had organized the march. The march was organized by the Helsinki Students’ Union (HYY). In Finland, foreigners did not have at the time rights to organize demonstrations.
The caption reads: Historic in Finland – foreigners dare to demand greater rights. This march took place on October 19, 1982. Published by Kansan Uutiset Viikolehti.
I was pretty surprised when I bumped into this sign at the Pieksämäki Railway Station in eastern Finland. A sign like this in a country with a large Mexican or Mexican American population would create quite an outcry. Does the owner attract more customers because they may share the same stereotypic views of foreigners in general and Mexicans in particular? Why is there a “Mexican” and not a Russian “Cossack” dressed in the same demeaning manner?
A racist ad of a "Mexican" at the Pieksämäki Railway Station.
Here is a commercial that was shown on US TV in the late-1960s that was banned for being racist.
If you compare the two, I would conclude that the one at the Pieksämäki Railway Station is far worse.
What would happen if a Mexican company planned to invest in Pieksämäki and saw the sign? If I were a Mexican, I would be outright insulted.
Just like the “Frito Bandito” commercial, the only aim of the sign is to reinforce a belief that certain national groups act in a certain way. Thus, as the sign suggests, Mexicans are poor because they do not have shoes, they lack teeth and appear to have sub-intelligence.
If any of the bloggers have similar ads to share with us, I would be most interested in publishing them.
Posted by Enrique 
Posted by Enrique 
Posted by Enrique 
