Defining white Finnish privilege #14
One of the matters that has always surprised me in Finland is that if you speak out against intolerance and racism, you are sometimes seen as the rude one, not the one making the inappropriate comment. Apart from playing down a social ill like intolerance, we too often lose sight of the real issue: the victim.
There are many factors that make us play down racism. One could be that we don’t want to rock the boat and get involved because intolerance doesn’t affect us directly. The issue is too complicated and hairy.
Take for example a recent case in Lieksa where parents don’t want their children to be taken to and from school by Somali drivers because they ‘don’t speak Finnish well enough.’