New voices in Sweden in the battle against racism and the stereotyping of Asians

© Zak Keith, 2012

There are some new voices on the Swedish landscape in the battle against the special brand of racism and discrimination that is directed towards Asians. Could this mean that awareness on the issue is on the rise?

It was a breath of fresh air to see that a recent critique published in the daily paper Expressen, which was embedded with racial put-downs about Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and which would normally never have raised a single Swedish eyebrow, was given a proper rebuttal by artist and author Leif Holmstrand, who saw right through the supremacist attitude of the art critic. The critic had claimed that Ai’s art wouldn’t have amounted to much of anything, if it weren’t for the fact that he was a dissident—the privilege of his being granted a Scandinavian exhibition was largely due to pity. Not too different from the backlash against basketball superstar Jeremy Lin and his dismissal as being the mere product of racial favoritism.

It was also particularly satisfying when I recently came across a couple of articles by Swedish journalist Patrik Lundberg, articulating almost word for word, the very issues I’ve been complaining about for years, but in Swedish—Patrik is what they call a “Swede-but-from-Korea.”

Although Swedes typically demand an explanation from Asians about how they ended up in their fine country, and although Swedes typically reject answers that anyone of Asian descent could possibly “come from” England or France or the US, they will often make provision for an Asian claiming to be “from Sweden,” as long as they admit to being a Korean adoptee and to being from “Korea originally.” Outside of this narrowly defined framework, any Asian who claims otherwise is simply a usurper.

Dr. Frank Yu,  Ph.D coined the term Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome to describe the assumptions made about, and marginalization of, Asians in the West—the instinctive perception of them as inassimilable non-citizens and sojourners.

Swedes, who are often regarded as, and who often regard themselves as, champions of humanist issues, can be disappointingly obtuse. Their excuse of having only recently been exposed to immigrants just doesn’t hold water. One in 20 Swedes are of Finnish descent. For decades, there have been influxes of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia; for centuries, coveted metalsmith Walloons from Belgium have been moving to Sweden in successive waves; the "father of Swedish industry," Louis De Geer, was Dutch; Swedish king Karl XIV was a French import and the Swedish language is now French-influenced as a result; celebrated "Swedish" folk singer and troubadour Cornelius Vreeswijk was Dutch. The list is endless.

Still, as much as I am exposed to Swedish blind-spot racism and ignorance, it never fails to surprise me that an African American’s claim of being “from the US” can be such a hard pill for Swedes to swallow. Refusing to let it rest at that, they’ll ask repeatedly where the African American is from “originally,” because the answer has to be “Africa.” In other words, consciously or unconsciously, Swedes believe in the Manifest Destiny of whites in America. They can be pretty hung up on matters of race, to say the least.

This hang up about race may be more Swedish than you think. In October 2009, Journalist Gustav Fridolin released a three-part television documentary titled, Our dark history (alternatively, Our secret history) highlighting Sweden’s longstanding advancement of racist concepts:

• Apparently, the origin of this hang-up over origins and the very Swedish obsession of measuring and comparing differences, is the Swede Linnaeus’ taxonomic labeling of species in the 1700s, which went on to form the scientific basis for ideas about racial hierarchy (with Europeans at the top) utilized by colonialists.
• Sweden was a significant contributor to the slave trade and in its endeavors to become a major player, had secretly maneuvered to take control of the colony of St. Barthélemy—a major slave trading center. As other countries were receding from the practice, the King of Sweden saw an opening and lied to abolitionists that he was on their side.
• Sweden was home to the world’s first State Institute for Race Biology, where ideas about eugenics and racial sanitation (a.k.a. ethnic cleansing and genocide) were developed. These were adopted by Nazi Germany and used in Sweden, among other things, for the forced sterilization of Gypsies and the mentally deficient, as well as the suppression of the indigenous Sami population. Ironically, although such programs to eradicate undesirables remained intact until as late as 1975, the press and mainstream stopped talking openly about racial supremacy sometime after WWII, on the defeat of Aryanist Germany. Sweden began pretending that none of this existed—overnight pseudo-transformation through denial.

Holocaust denial isexplicitly or implicitly illegal in 17 European countries, but not in Sweden, where racism-denial seems to be firmly rooted in the Swedish psyche.

Kristina Lindquist hit the nail on the head in her article, Calling racism by its correct term, when she said that Swedes want to be able to freely use racist terminology without being labeled a racist. They want to be able to call those of African descent “niggers” and to perpetuate colonialist-era concepts, decide where people belong (or come from) in the grand scheme of things, but not be accused of Old World thinking. They want to be able to act racist, talk racist, be racist, but not be called racist.

In the face of a slave auction that roused the ire of Rev. Jesse Jackson and when confronted with Patrik Lundberg’s article, You’re tearing my soul apart, Swedes have tended to fire back with massive salvos of rebuttals. Hundreds of hyperbolic blogs have sprung up to twist, belittle and ridicule Patrik’s assertion that laughing at Asians seems to be the only form of racism that can pass unnoticed nowadays.

Racism against Asians seems to be flying under the radar. Perhaps people are accustomed to getting away with it. While they would think twice about pulling out their lower lip to mock someone with African features, they don’t seem to hesitate at stretching their faces to make squinty eyes at an Asian or mock their pronunciation abilities. If an Asian has the audacity to be offended, the typical reaction is that they choose to be offended about “nothing.” The fault is theirs, for having a lousy sense of humor. The unwritten social contract calls for Asians to accept open denigration. Most of the responses I’ve had to my objections are along the lines of, “What the f**k is your problem?”

On occasion, I am met with protests of “No, no! You should take it as a compliment. I consider Asians to be hardworking and clever people!” But to see any one nationality/ethnicity/culture as superior or inferior to another is a flawed concept. Positive or negative race-based appraisals are two edges of the same sword that can cut both ways. The very same thinking that Asians belong to an industrious “model minority” is also the basis for the reasoning that Asians are submissive, peaceable and agreeable—and therefore it’s perfectly alright to openly denigrate them.

The ignorance I encounter comes from your average Joe Svensson—conservatives and liberals alike, the educated and “culturally enlightened,” and even “cool guys,” like musicians. But whenever I bring up my feelings about the matter, the usual response has been, “well, everyone gets discriminated against in one form or another, through sexism, ageism, for being Jewish or a redhead, etc.” But anti-Asian racism and discrimination simply cannot and should not be absorbed into the “white” experience, Jewish experience or any other experience. It is most certainly a special brand of discrimination and racism reserved for Asians, and therefore, it deserves its own special category.

Even if an argument could be made that conscientious racism is less common in Sweden, ignorance and unconscious racism abound. The biggest problem, as I see it, is that as long as Swedes deny or remain unaware of their own racist thoughts and behaviors, as long as they insist that their racist undertones are not race-based, or that there is no basis whatsoever for accusing them of being racist to any degree, their ignorance will never be properly addressed. Ignorance that is not confronted is fertile ground for conscientious racism.

So here’s a big thumbs up for Gustav Fridolin, Patrik Lundberg, Kristina Lindquist and Leif Holmstrand. Wait! Is that a light I see at the end of the tunnel?
© Zak Keith, 2012

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