The Order of the Teaspoon, a non-profit organisation that purports to fight for equality and against racism, has sparked outrage with a recent article addressing the issue of racism against whites in Sweden.
This topic has gained a lot of attention in Sweden amid a series of cruel crimes against ethnic Swedes committed by gangs of migrants or people with a foreign background, often combined with highly demeaning behaviour, filmed, and later shared. This even coined a new word, "förnedringsrån" or “humiliation crime”, which has since been making headlines.
In her opinion piece in the newspaper Aftonbladet, Secretary General Lovisa Fhager Havdelin maintained that racism against whites as such doesn't exist in Sweden. Admittedly, whites may be “subjected to acts and prejudice based on their light complexion”, but it's not about “structural racism”.
“Racism is about structures, power, and privileges in society that make people consistently, consciously or unconsciously, favoured or disadvantaged because of their skin color or ethnicity. For example, in working life, school or the housing market. Reports, testimonies, and research show how Afro-Swedes and other ethnic minorities are discriminated against in Sweden. The fact that it's not being discussed broadly is proof in itself of where the power is vested”.
Furthermore, it is “problematic”, according to Fhager Havdelin, to even focus on racism against whites, or reverse racism. According to her, this “abandons a common understanding of racism”, “undermines the tools to counter it”, and “erases the history of systematic oppression of non-whites”.
Additionally, Havdelin emphasised the problem of “white fragility” and called on whites to understand how whiteness itself “gives privilege and superiority”.
Fhager Havdelin's opinion piece has been met by critical reactions on social media.
“What a racist and retarded article. Racism against whites exists throughout the world, and the saddest thing is that it is trivialised, accepted, and normalised by white lefties. Depressing article. Peak brainwashed virtue signalling”, journalist and blogger Luai Ahmed tweeted.
Vilken rasistisk och efterbliven artikel.
— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) March 21, 2020
Rasism mot vita finns i hela världen - och det sorgligaste är att den relativiseras, accepteras och normaliseras av vita vänsterblivna.
Deprimerande artikel. Peak hjärntvättad godhetssignalering.https://t.co/85AhNtoOv2 #svpol
“The debater thinks that there is no 'reverse' racism. She thinks that humiliation robberies have nothing to do with racism. She's totally wrong. Racism against whites, racism against Swedes is highly alive and the humiliation is a way of showing this. That's all there is to it”, criminologist, political scientist, and Lund University senior research fellow Ardavan Khoshnood tweeted.
Debattören menar att det inte finns "omvänd" #rasism. Hon menar att förnedringsrånen INTE har något med rasism att göra. Hon har helt fel. Rasism mot vita, rasism mot Svenskar är högst levande och förnedringsrånen är ett sätt att visa detta. Punkt. https://t.co/KrxeHgppOX
— Ardavan Khoshnood (@ardavank) March 21, 2020
“The Order of the Teaspoon, an organisation that relies on state grants and receives funds from the Heritage Fund, that is dead Swedes, believes that Swedes cannot be exposed to racism. Why do we fund joke organisations like this?” another one said.
@Teskedsorden, en organisation som får statsbidrag och medel från arvsfonden, dvs döda svenskar, menar att svenskar inte kan bli utsatta för rasism.
— Pontus Persson (@PontusPersson5) March 21, 2020
Varför finansierar vi såna här pajasorganisationer? https://t.co/7vlQ2WcSZb
In February, a case of four underage culprits convicted in a Stockholm suburb for robbing a 16-year-old Swede and urinating on him while calling him names and degrading his origin, sparked a national debate on whether this consitutes a “hate crime” or not.
