A:A little bit respect pleaseB:I am a nurseA:I am [a] Finnish womanB:So what?ā¦A:You are [a] fucking African womanB:So what?A:You mean nothing! You are zero! You are not human in my eyes! You know what happen in our country (gesturing towards herself). Why [do you] all come rape our country? We are in trouble because black peoples. Yes. its reality and be ready this country will be big racist one day also. I am not before but I think I am racist because of what I see. no respect, no anything. just try to live good here work, donāt use our social please.B:So you are talking [to] me? what did I do to you?A:Why? because you are black. this country will be like this because you are blackB:because I am black?A:You are black am whiteB:Thank youA:You are welcome (walking away) but not in my country.
In October 2015, another āisolated case 1 ā of racism occurred on the streets of the Helsinki region in Finland. Like most racial incidents, this was unprovoked. The main reason for the attack was the colour of the victimās skin (it could very well have been because of her gender, sexuality, or religionāor a combination of these elementsātoo). The victimiser claims her superiority by referring to two main things: her Finnishness and her whiteness. This is in stark contrast to the victimās blackness and her African-ness. Although the victimiser could not tell if the victim was a Finnish national, she assumed that being black means one cannot be a Finn and that all black people are Africans. Being black and African meant that the victim is zero, not human. As a result, being āa zeroā and ānot humanā means that any nature of inhuman treatment bestowed upon the victim is justified. As David Theo Goldberg puts it, ārace today is supposed to be a thing of the past. And yet all we do, seemingly is to talk about it. We talk (about) race when not talking (about) it; and we donāt talk (about) it when (we should be) talking (about) itā (2015, p. 1). In the discussion of race, the issue of skin color remains prominent due to coloniality of power; defined by Maldonado-Torres (2007, p. 243) as a ālong-standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of colonialism, but that define culture, labour, intersubjective relations, and knowledge production well beyond the strict limits of colonial administrationsā and white supremacy, a belief in the superiority of the white race over the rest (see Ahmed 2012; Bonilla-Silva 2006; Mignolo 2009; Leonardo 2004). This is done through denying its existence yet enjoying from its existence. This is done by inscribing the racialized with a race and the racializing without one. This may also lead to the racializing being presented as superior in some cases. āWe are all humansā is a new racial category (as if humanity is such a category) which represents yet another attempt to hide or negate the use of race. First, we replace race with culture, then ethnicity, now humanity.
What does Race do?
A lot of people get trapped around the debates of what race is and/or what it is not. In doing so, they consciously and sometimes unconsciously fail to comprehend the most important lesson to learn with regards to raceāwhat race does (see Lentin 2015). Very often such debates are aimed at denying the existence and relevance of race as an essential part of human relationships and interaction. In such cases, those in denial evoke arguments around the obscurity of race as a biological reality. In this regard, it is important to note that although race is biologically unreal, sociopolitically it has an impact on the lives of the āracializedā (see Alemanji 2016; Goldberg 2015; Ahmed 2012). As exemplified in the discussion above, those who argue that race is unreal, use race to advance themselves and dehumanize the āracialized.ā Those who are considered to have a race are often viewed as inferior (black), while whiteness, that which is not racialized, and āuncoloured,ā is seen as a norm (see Alemanji 2016; Goldberg 2015; Mignolo 2009). Race is employed as an oppressive tool to dehumanize the āracialized,ā while denying the existence and significance of race.
The opening conflict between a white Finn and a Black person moves to a macro level when the victimiser asks āwhy do you come rape our country?ā¦ā āWe are in trouble because of black people āwhose inhumanity compares the otherās behaviors to that of animals which, if not tamed, must be destroyed or else she/he infects the purity of the host country (Goldberg 2015; Alemanji 2016). Attempts to tame this āsavageā African woman is evident in claims that the victim should be respectful, that she should work hard and not use any social benefits from the āhostā country. In other words, the savage African woman should adopt the position of a twenty-first-century slaveāserve, show respect to you, not eat, not clothe, not bear āmanyā children. When these condemned people fail to conform to this slave status, they become a problem that must be dealt with in any possible way. In other words, when they fail to do this (and often even when they do), they become the cause of all the troubles in most āWesternā countries. This is the point where the victimiser claims that like her, the nation (Finland in this case) is fast becoming racist. Going beyond one womanās argument, one must not take denial of a racial classification in Finland at face value as more racially derogatory classifications are gaining popularity such as āimmigrant background peopleā (see Dervin et al. 2015); the growing popularity of the Finns Party in recent years and the recent policing of and government interventions into issues of free speech in public media is indicative of a trend that cannot be continuously ignored.
Employing different literatures on racism, one could simply define the concept as discrimination/prejudice based on difference starting from skin color and reaching out to other variables like gender, sexuality, religion exercised through the use of power (see Alemanji 2016). Racism is a necessary rhetorical strategy used to devaluate, and justify dispensable lives that are portrayed by hegemonic discourses as less valuable (see Goldberg 2015; Alemanji 2016; Hage 2015; Alemanji and Dervin 2016). The bottom line of racism is devaluation and not the color of oneās skin. The color of oneās skin is a significant marker used to devaluate. Although people in denial often argue against this fact, the discussion above exemplifies how vital skin color is regarding the issues of racism. Racial violence is often geared toward what is physically different before moving into what is psychologically different. In this light, in a society like Finland, a non-white person, a Muslim veiled woman, a Roma beggar, a homosexual couple, and a friend or āallyā to a non-white person are the easiest targets of racial violence. However, in politics of postraciality (see Goldberg 2015), this group of people are considered to be part of the mainstream by the mainstream, at the convenience of the mainstream. They also easily cease to be part of the mainstream whenever the mainstream decides. They are at the mercy of the benevolent dominant white group.
Moving Beyond the Multicultural to Antiracism
Political movements in most western societies are continuously shifting to the far-right where discourses and policies around the Other are strongly becoming more racialized and normalized (Alemanji 2016; Mudde 2014; Hage 2015). The Other, oftentimes non-whites, refugees, Muslims etc., exist at the mercy of the mainstream who continuously view them as less than humans and the cause of the social and economic crises of the mainstream. They are attacked and caricatured endlessly in the media (especially in social media), during political rallies and even physically in public places like in the excerpt above. On the one hand, such attacks may be different but when they occur they are the sameāthe Other is always at fault for his/her actions or inactions and, as a result, must be punished (Mignolo 2009; Goldberg 2015; Alemanji 2016). On the other hand, the mainstream has become embolden and more vocal in their attacks and have become blind to the weaknesses of their arguments as they attempt to put the blame on the Other.
These issues are not adequately addressed by a lot of multicultural endeavors and programs (see Alemanji 2016) which continuously target the Other in an attempt to āhelpā them ābecomeā better versions of themselves for the mainstream. Although many would argue that critical multiculturalism addresses issues of racism, it is important to note that antiracism addresses these issues better. Antiracism as a word is indicative of the existence of racism. However, it must be noted that not all programs that carry the antiracism banner adequately address issues of racism. Antiracism programs have to be created for a specific target and are not always transferable as one antiracism program may be a direct contrast to another. This is so because the issues of racism occur both at micro and macro levels.
Antiracism is not new (in Europe at least). It was usurped by multiculturalism/interculturalism in the late twentieth century because of the burden of race and racism evident in the notion of anti-racism unlike in the labels multiculturalism and interculturalism. While the latter situates the problem in a lack of understanding of people from other cultures, the former situates the problem in systems and hierarchies that create and maintain structural imbalance by giving some groups power while denying others (see Goldberg 2009, 2016; Alemanji 2016; Lentin and Titley 2011; Hage 2015). With the weaknesses of multiculturalism well documented (see Lentin and Titley 2011; Dervin 2015; Alemanji and Mafi 2016; Alemanji and Dervin 2016), it is appealing to look beyond the personal discomfort of the privileged and give antiracism more space in schools and beyond. I have argued in my earlier work how this can be done and this book takes this argument a few steps further. Antiracism is a struggle like the story of David and Goliath, 2 the odds are against the antiracist in most cases. Driven by (but not limited to) human rights, social justice, and equity, antiracism commits to building a worldview where people can recognise and understand themselves and others for who they are. For this to happen, one canno...