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Victim Finns see no racism

By Liz Fekete

1 October 1996

An article in the Guardian focuses on the background to racial violence in Finland.

Nearly every black immigrant has a story to tell. But, according to a Moroccan interpreter at a refugee camp in Tampere, only one black person, to his knowledge, has ever won a discrimination or abuse case.

Finns tend to be cautious to owning up to racism, seeing themselves as victims of 800 years of foreign occupation and half a century of cold war isolation. Attitudes toward black people are imbibed by the young from an early age. The Golden ABC, a popular children's reader now in its twelfth edition states 'The Negro washes his face, but it never gets any whiter.'

A leading member of Finland's 10000-strong Romany community has warned of government complacency to racism. 'There is structural racism in Finland, it runs right through the bureaucracy,' he says. 'Romanies have been here for 500 years, and our candidate is still not allowed to head the committee for Romany affairs.'

Guardian 26.7.96

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