(edit title) Is Sweden as racist as some say or is it a myth? Options

[*sloan*]

I really wonder :?: of all those that have taken the time to comment on this particular thread, this one thing. How many of you are white? and how many of you have ever been in a actual position to experience racism? and how many of you would even know if it were right in you front of you? Each month without fail, this same topic resurfaces. And the vast majority of those on this forum , quickly dispell any notion that racism exist in sweden. How many have really had first hand experience and know what they are talking about, vs those just trying to paint a rosier myth about life in sweden?

[bluto]

Sloan if you put your personal experiance we could understand more about the topic, it dosent help you talk like that

[*sloan*]

bluto,
In my personal experience in life, I have always found the most credible stories are from those that have endured the challenges they speak of. Usually many on this forum tend to either dispute, and dispell any notion of racism in sweden without offering or bringing to the table an experience to share that validates their feeling or beliefs.

[bluto]

I talk about my experiance , I am white but I am from italy black hair etc, and when I was in denmark I remember one day some yong guys from the bus they call me svarta ? I think it mean black. Anyway I havent had other problem , most of problem I think they come from our mind, I think I have had impression that people was not very friendly , but it is becose it is theirs way to be , not becose they arent in sweden, becose they dont show it maybe, every time we try to understand other with our prospective we do many mistake. Sometimes i think , when one immigrant that live here in italy and sometimes I can be not friendly with him , maybe he think I am racist , but it is not true I am just hangry about myself maybe my wife did me nervous

[*sloan*]

bluto,
That is truely first hand expeience. I tip my hat to you my freind :wink: . You sound like a wise person indeed. I hope you havent had anymore experiences as of late like those in Denamark.
We are all only human, rejection for any reason,tends to leave life scars for a life time. I share with you mutual pain, however it is not my hair that is blk as with you. Thank for sharing a part of your life. :wink:

[Leonard]

Ahh another person that thinks you can be racist only if you are white. Another I'm not racist because I'm a minority. This is sad, sad, sad. I see a lot more racist comments coming from the immigrants then I have in Sweden from Swedes.

I meet a lot of immigrants that blame all there problems on the race card. I don't have a job becuase i'm not white. I don't have .... because I'm not white. Please!

I have travelled a lot and I must say Sweden is very low on the list as a racist place to live.

[bluto]

Leonard I agree with you sometimes the race card is used , maybe becose one need use it I hope not becose he really think about it, When I was in sweden like italian i was close to interpretate people act in a racist way, well I understand that it is not the real reason, it is very difficult dont fall in that false way to think for an immigrant.

[*Sweddutch*]

are Swedes racist....????, well I am not from Sweden and I have never experienced it in this country, having traveled to all corners of the world, and all for work, Sweden does come accross as not being racist at all. I always say to my international staff, if you think you feel discriminated against, then best thing would be is go back to your home country.

[*Paulo's Hilton Not Blond*]

Racism can be presented in so many different ways wether it is openly or not I think sometimes it is practiced unconciously but not without guilty in small acts, especially due to cultural behaviour, since it is there hidden inside, and in some extreme stressing situations it will blow out! (e.g. when you're drunk, got pissed off, and so forth)

Many people don't realize that sometimes a simple comment that seemed so inoffensive has a lot of built-in racist messages. Perhaps, it doesn't look like you were insulting somebody if you would not put yourself on the other side. :oops:
On the other hand, sometimes you don't even have to pronunce a single word, but will be equally racist as much as with the most terrible insults.

However, in mostly cases I do believe racism is also linked to social-economic background.

I've traveled quite a lot in my whole life and lived in the US. I never experienced any kind of racism, nor discrimination as I being a homosexual person or from being South American. Even in my home country I used to be openly gay and never had a problem at work. Am I lucky? ...

Anyway, I think also people tend to be less racist if they are not so provincial. The more you see the world and diversity the more you are likely to be tolerant.

[*sloan*]

Leonard,
So lets just say for all tense and purposes, or even hypothetically that you may in fact be white. Living perhaps or visting one of the whitest lands on the globe. How, do you... even begin to understad what racism is? You said you discount comments from immigrants as the " race card ". Yet you mostly likely havent or couldnt imagine walking in their shoes to know whether or not their plights hold any real validity. Strip a person of simple humanity like a job, and one can see circumstances completely different.
And AHK, by encouraging your International Staff to leave if they feel discriminated only show that if you as an employer lack the right tools to help rather than right off a person that may have been a valuable asset to your company. Most people who are not of color are quick to assume someone is using the race card, when in fact many situation are just might be credible, if through the eyes of a person that really looking.
And last, because a person visits a land, doesnt mean that they got the just and or entire meaning of the economics and demographics.

[Leonard]

Sloan

My point again is that you and many people think that they can't be racist if they are not white. Sweden is miles ahead of most countries in the world as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe being a white person in a nonwhite country is not the same but sometimes I have been treated well and sometimes I have been treated poorly but all that I have been to treat very differently because of my skin color.

Again I will state that I hear many more racist comments from nonSwedes in Sweden then from Swedes.

So you think that I can't comment on racism in Sweden because I'm white!!! Immigrants with this type of attitude will continue to "swim on the bottom" not because they are coloured but because of there attitude.

[bluto]

I agree with leonard for some way but i have to say that dosent mean that racism dosent exist, sometimes i think to be liberal and against racism , but then I find myself think bad about immigrants that (it is the true in italy ) are all the time on the newspaper for many bad things, but if i really try to be honest sometimes i remember a song that say like that, " I am not scare about immigrant , about black about pusher, I am scare about good people that are wathing behind the window with suspect and the police that beat them" first time i heard that song i dident think was right , but then , I have try to read behind the provocation and there is something true in that song. I walk in the street and sometims it svare me more a god respectable middle class man with his hipocrisy that a poor immigrant that try to live with nothing, insted i have more simpathy for por people that with peopel that have all, I fell like that in this time.
Sometimes our scares dosent help to see the true

[Rudolph Hucker]

Swedes are as racist as anyone else in Europe, it's just they like a lot of things, like to appear extremely liberal, and they want to be seen to be doin the 'right thing'.
...When they drink though, they're as rascist as the English, the Danish and anyone else.
And I, like Gazzah, have heard that many times 'Yeah, but you're English, that don't count"...
Swedes aren't racist to Western Europeans, Americans, Australians etc...
But the same's true in England, where I doubt a Swedes would encounter any racism directed towards him.

good post spot on i'm 100% sure that anyone in the uk would not be racsist towards anyone from sweden. the same as i have not felt anyone is racsist towards me here. they are just curious as to why i left london to come to uppsala.

it's just about the colour of your skin that causes most problems i would say.

[Céitinn]

Sloan

My point again is that you and many people think that they can't be racist if they are not white. Sweden is miles ahead of most countries in the world as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe being a white person in a nonwhite country is not the same but sometimes I have been treated well and sometimes I have been treated poorly but all that I have been to treat very differently because of my skin color.

Again I will state that I hear many more racist comments from nonSwedes in Sweden then from Swedes.

So you think that I can't comment on racism in Sweden because I'm white!!! Immigrants with this type of attitude will continue to "swim on the bottom" not because they are coloured but because of there attitude.

I agree with you, racism is now finally becomming acceptable to be discussed by white people in the UK now that the main problem is white European's which are the problem! Before when the problem was with people of colour you were almost forbidden from saying anything. This leads to frustration and so it builds.

When i lived in England the most racist comments i ever heard were from Africas to Afro-Caribbeans and visa versa and Pakistanis to Indians adn visa versa, not in a joking way.

But this kind of thing will always happen! Hell, i've been seriously racially abused and threatened with violence just for calling a Scot a fellow Brit in a discussion with some Swedes!

I guess that can't be racist as it was inter-Brit bashing? Well... it is fashionable to bash the English isn't it?

[Céitinn]

good post spot on i'm 100% sure that anyone in the uk would not be racsist towards anyone from sweden. the same as i have not felt anyone is racsist towards me here. they are just curious as to why i left london to come to uppsala.

it's just about the colour of your skin that causes most problems i would say.

Maybe not but a Swede in the UK will be speaking our language a lot better than a Brit in Sweden!

I think, as usual, people are muddying the waters by using one word to fit all! I do not think Sweden is a racist country but I do think there is a hell of a lot of discrimination against foreigners, including white native English speakers, from people such as employers!

Racial discrimination is not racism! You might have plenty of friends from Turkey but would not want to have one share you home, are you racist?

One of my nieces was branded a racist because she said she did not want a black boyfriend yet 70% of her friends are black and she is one of those people who is very into black music and the like. Is it possible for her to be a racist? Her reason was that she does not like the way black guys (she is generalising) treat women.

I myself do not want an English girlfriend despite being English, am i racist? I know black men who only go out with white women, what are they?

People need to get a grip on what racism really is! People keep telling me the English language is so rich with words yet people seem to prefer to use as few of them as possible!

You chose him over me, you are racist! No, it is discrimination! He does not go in that area because he is racist! No, he is xenaphobic!

Time for some breakfast!