Scholarly discussions contesting post-racialism have noted how the false but common belief – that systematic racism has been defeated in Western societies – works to undermine anti-racism’s critical potential. Simultaneously, the discussion about the relativization of anti-racism has mainly been located in contexts with strong anti-racist traditions. By exploring anti-racism in the Finnish civil society, the article thematizes thinking around the post-racial modality of racism in a context where racism is often presented as a recent phenomenon. A discourse analysis of non-governmental organization advocacy materials that work to mainstream anti-racism identifies three parallel problem-definitions of racism, illustrating a tendency to understand racism as an individual flaw in a non-racist social reality. This shows that trivializing racism and recentring whiteness happen through classed and aged discourses.
AhmedS (2012) On Being Included Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
2.
Älä oleta – Normit nurin! (2013) Tallin: Vocational students’ union SAKKI, The Union of Finnish Upper Secondary School Students, Swedish school association in Finland FSS & SETA – LGBTI Rights in Finland.
3.
AlemanjiAAMafiB (2016) Antiracism education? A study of an antiracism workshop in Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research62(2): 186–199.
4.
All Our Children (2013) Samuel: Ole rohkea ja reilu – uskalla välittää campaing video. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK5zSTNpDUA (accessed 25 February 2016).
5.
BacchiCL (2009) Analysing Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be?Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson.
6.
EssedP (1994) Understanding Everyday Racism an Interdisciplinary Theory (Sage series on race and ethnic relations 2). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
7.
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) (2009) EU-MIDIS: European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey: Main Results Report. Luxembourg: European Union.
8.
Finnish Refugee Council (2013) Seitsämän tositarinaa rasismista.
9.
GarnerS (2014) Injured nations, racialising states and repressed histories: Making whiteness visible in the Nordic countries. Social Identities20(6): 407–422.
10.
GoldbergDT (2009) The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
11.
GoldbergDT (2015) Are We All Post-Racial yet?Malden, MA: Polity Press.
12.
HesseB (2010) Self-Fulfilling prophecy: The post-racial horizon. South Atlantic Quarterly110(1): 155–178.
13.
HübinetteTLundströmC (2011) Sweden after the recent election: The double-binding power of Swedish whiteness through the mourning of the loss of ‘old Sweden’ and the passing of ‘good Sweden’. Nordic Journal of Women’s Studies (NORA)19(1): 42–52.
14.
JyrkiäinenSSievänenPStenbäckJ. (2011) Toisella katsomalla. Maahanmuuttajista maahan muuttajiin. Helsinki: Kulttuurikameleontit.
15.
KanninenSMarkkulaH (2011) R-sana – kirja rasismista ja siihen puuttumisesta. Save the Children, Helsinki.
16.
KeskinenS (2012) Limits to speech? The racialised politics of gendered violence in Denmark and Finland. Journal of Intercultural Studies33(3): 261–274.
17.
KeskinenS (2014) The individualisation of racism and its contestations: A Nordic perspective. Keynote at ETMU days, University of Helsinki, Helsinki.
18.
KeskinenSTuoriSIrniS. (eds) (2009) Complying with Colonialism: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in the Nordic Region. Farnham: Ashgate.
LaajaJ (ed.) (2013a) Rasismin ja anti-semitismin vastainen oppimateriaali. Ennakkoluuloja – minullako?Anne Frank House, Finnish Peace Education Institute; University of Helsinki.
21.
LaajaJ (ed.) (2013) Rasismin ja anti-semitismin vastainen oppimateriaali. Ennakkoluuloja – minullako?Anne Frank House, Finnish Peace Education Institute & University of Helsinki.
22.
LentinA (2011) What happens to anti-racism when we are post-race?Feminist Legal Studies19(2): 159–168.
23.
LentinA (2016) Racism in public or public racism: Doing anti-racism in ‘post-racial’ times. Ethnic and Racial Studies39(1): 33–48.
24.
LentinATitleyG (2011) The Crises of Multiculturalism Racism in a Neoliberal Age. London; New York: Zed Books.
25.
LuhtakallioE (2010) Local politicizations: A comparison of Finns and French practicing democracy. Sociology research reports, no. 265. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.
MalmstenJ (2008) Den föreningsdrivna anti-rasismen i Sverige: Anti-rasism i rörelse. Malmö: ISV, University of Linköping; IMER.
28.
Non-Discrimination Ombudsman (2014) Being Different in Everyday Life: Survey on Roma’s Experiences of Discrimination. Helsinki: Non-Discrimination Ombudsman.
29.
PitcherB (2009) The Politics of Multiculturalism: Race and Racism in Contemporary Britain. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
RastasA (2012) Reading history through Finnish exceptionalism. In: LoftsdottirKJensenL (eds) ‘Whiteness’ and Post-Colonialism in the Nordic Region. Burlington: Ashgate, pp.89–103.
32.
RastasA (2014) Talking back: Voices from the African diaspora in Finland. In: EachraneM (ed.) Afro-Nordic Landscapes: Equality and Race in Northern Europe. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, pp.187–207.
33.
Red Cross (n.d.) Ei rasismille! Mot rasism! Against racism! Available at: http://www.eirasismille.fi/ (accessed 2 July 2015).
34.
RossiL-M (2009) Licorice boys and female coffee beans: Representations of colonial complicity in Finnish visual culture. In: KeskinenSTuoriSIrniS (eds) Complying with Colonialism: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in the Nordic Region. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp.189–204.
SuurpääL (2002) Erilaisuuden hierarkiat: suomalaisia käsityksiä maahanmuuttajista, suvaitsevaisuudesta ja rasismista. Helsinki: Finnish Youth Research Society.
40.
The Guides and Scouts of Finland (n.d.) Rasisminvastainen viikko tulee – partiolainen ei vaikene!
41.
UrponenM (2010) Ylirajaisia suhteita. Helsingin olympialaiset, Armi Kuusela ja ja ylikansallinen historia. Helsinki: Yliopistopaino.
42.
VirolainenK (1994) Kansallisvaltioideologia ja Romanipolitiikka Suomessa Vuosina 1860–1980. Oulu: University of Oulu.
43.
VuorelaU (2009) Colonial complicity: The ‘post-colonial’ in a Nordic context. In: KeskinenSTuoriSIrniS (eds) Complying with Colonialism: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in the Nordic Region. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp.19–34.
