European Socialist Cops Puts to Shame the Real Americans of NYPD.

[evildevil]

Radical Idea of Treating Black People as People not Impressive. Not Enough Oppressive Policing or Shooting.

Countrymen not impressed by Swedish cops’ subway heroics

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Everyone is gushing about the Swedish cops who stopped a Manhattan subway beatdown - except their compatriots back home

Comments

[lovedforaday]

let's not pretend euros are lambs when it comes to racism. but good for them for acting like decent human beings.

[synekdokee]

Let's not pretend Europe is a cohesive nation or culture, so exactly who are you referring to by "Europe?" In Sweden at least the level of racism isn't even near the level of what it is in the States. Just because they haven't abolished racism doesn't mean they're not better at dealing with race politics than Americans.

[bananainpyjamas]

I'm sure it's easier to deal with "race politics" and ignore any racism that does exist when the vast majority of the country is white. The fact that the notoriously racist and anti-immigration Swedish Democrats doubled their share of the vote in the 2014 election certainly doesn't suggest that Sweden is trending in the right direction.

ETA: The UN Commission on Human Rights certainly thinks Sweden has a race problem.

[synekdokee]

Lmao I didn't say Sweden doesn't have racism, I said it's a fuckload worse in the US. But I'm guessing that sense of American Exceptionalism makes it hard to not fall on the "but other countries aren't racism free either!" excuse.

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/29/a_un_watchdog_released_a_report_on_racism_the_u_s_and_we_are_not_doing_well/

[bananainpyjamas]

Do you think you need to post a link telling a brown person that racism is bad in the US? Racism is awful here but there's no indication that racial attitudes are more progressive in Sweden or really anywhere in Europe. Exhibit A, from the minister of culture no less.

Sweden is still not, on the whole, racially diverse, which makes it way easier for Swedes to cover their ears and go "Lalalala we're not racist, 'Murica is way worse." From the report I linked: "It is our view that the Swedish philosophy of equality and its public and self-image as a country with non-discrimination and liberal democracy, blinds it to the racism faced by Afro-Swedes and Africans in its midst. No country is free of racism and Sweden is not an exception. For a nation that has been perceived as having a long tradition of tolerance and openness, the relative silence around racism and racial discrimination is surprising and worrying."

But open xenophobia has begun to drastically increase with the rise of African and Arab immigration. Funny, that.

[synekdokee]

As a half-Asian who's well familiar with immigrant communities in my own country and some in Sweden, I can definitely tell you we'd rather live in Nordic countries than in the States. You keep quoting me stuff about "Sweden has racism too!" like I haven't told you that twice. But if you shoot a person to death where I live, you're gonna get in deep shit here, rather than get off scott free if they happen to be of some other ethnicity than caucasian, or you happen to be a cop. Our cops also don't target non-whites. You can't try to prevent certain minorities from voting, and hate speech is outlawed here and people are incredibly aware of how to report flammatory speech (especially online) to the police. Meanwhile apparently in the States ballot proposals to kill minorities is ok because of a legal loophole. You can keep going about how other countries are racist too, but if you try to claim the US doesn't have it worse both in practice and legislation, you're so deep in denial. I'm 100% done with your America apologism.

[bananainpyjamas]

The most open racism I've ever faced has come as a tourist in Scandinavia and in East Asia so I can tell you from experience that "hate speech being outlawed" means jack shit and being half-Asian gives you about as much insight as a white person when it comes to the racism faced by dark-skinned folk. I'm equally done with your textbook European apologism.

[mistress_infy]

YUP. I'm a white-passing POC, my son is a visible POC, and he's had to deal with some really outrageous racism at every turn, including having a woman shout at us to "go back where (we) came from." I mean, okay, things might be better in that we're not being subjected to violence and generally people claim to find that kind of behavior outrageous, but I mean...it still happens.

DUH, forgot to mention we're ex-pats to Sweden.

[bananainpyjamas]

Yeah, I mostly enjoyed my trip through Scandinavia but the overt racism I had to deal with took me aback. Especially when it manifested as racially-charged sexual harassment, ick. Obviously everyone will have their own preferences, but I'm generally way more comfortable in places that are racially diverse, within or outside the U.S.

[mistress_infy]

Bleh. To be fair, I've had far, FAR less cat-calling and harassment in that regard since moving here (mostly because Swedes are strangely introverted as a general rule), but the few times I've had it, people always look way more offended that I stood up to them. We're lucky that we live in a relatively small town with a large immigrant population--people assume my son (and sometimes me) are Middle Eastern anyway, so I usually feel way safer there.

[mistress_infy]

Cops don't target non-whites in Scandinavia, are you serious?? How do you explain the "Roma registries" then?? Come on now.

[lovedforaday]

people in this community have talked about the systemic and institutional racism in the US in this community for nearly 10 years. i'm sorry i disrupted that pattern by saying many European nations still have problems with racism even if they're not as openly horrible as the US.