To family and friends back in the United States. We the people in order to form a more perfect Union may have succeeded in as much as more is a living word. It denotes a condition that the world was in then and what Unions were like then. I can tell you with some degree of confidence that among the failures of the formation came the misdeeds of those who, while apart of the the Union of States, worked to make mankind divided along racial lines.
The fact that I came to a Nordic Country as wide-eyed and with no preconceived notions of racism did not prepare me for the spread of the propagation of my own racial inferiority. Finns, Swede, Norwegians and Danes all seem have adopted some of the offensive language that I grew up hearing in the United States. While the current climate of racial indifference that exists world wide seems to be directed toward Muslim and by extension Arabs, in one month alone I have had "nigger" whispered in my ear three time from different folk right here in Raseborg. Mind you, those who whispered this word were telling me "nigger jokes" and apologized. Yet they do not know how often I had to laugh off such offenses growing up. They do not know that the courage it takes to take the joke also undermines comfort. When I share these encounters with my wife, she seems as unprepared as any well-meaning liberal person. She would rather point out how stereo-types against Finns exist as well. Such unpreparedness makes me wonder, do Finns really know how bad we (African-Americans and others like Native American and Mexicans have had it?) How history inside the United States is not studies, it seems. Little peace do I gain from our feedback and discussions. A month ago Martti Korpijaakko sent me a link to a paper James Baldwin wrote about his time in Switzerland. I was excited to learn that a Finn actually knew of James Baldwin. Baldwin touched on some parallels to my own observations.
It is as if no-one feels my developing pain.
When last I addressed this issue, it was to confess that I had brought my racial identity card along with me. When Finns avoided eye contact I thought they were demonstrating the same Whites who would rather not look a Black man eye to eye. I was wrong. Finns avoid contact with each other as well. Ok so I began to question my own tendencies to read the terrain as I was taught in the United States. I loved coming to the realization. Knowing my country had done this to me. That we are guilty of thinking in terms of WHITE AND BLACK. I even began to count my own misdeeds in attributing WHITENESS to Finns.
I feel for my fellow Muslim brothers. They seem withdrawn and unable to voice their grieves. I try to remain receptive yet they are a silent about asylum matters. I understand as I post this fearing that Finns might mistake it as an attack. Yet I am also growing concern about how this climate may signal changes to come. Two days ago, I had to ask someone “did something happen; why are Finns casting glances as if I am being featured as a WANTED MAN”? Sure enough, something had happened in London’s underground. I had not even heard the news.
WE THE PEOPLE have done a good job creating a MORE perfect union. However our racial differences wherein we divide WHITES/BLACKS have aided in keeping the world stuck in the mire of ethic divide that long before the Pilgrims landed existed. I try to forget that I am Black not because I am ashamed. I just don't want to signal that the world owns me something. Yet all the while I am always reminded of my heritage in jokes, discrimination and prejudices. I embrace this shared observation as a cleansing.
Text and photo by Kevin Stewart
