But the talk about how white Nordic is and us POC here not being visible, as many comments in this thread has focused on, is pure hyperbole. I'd argue it's harmful as everytime it's perpetuated that we don't exist it stirs up the crazies when we're increasingly becoming visible in the media landscape. I tried to show what I see regularly by just following news and politics in Norway. And it is no worse in representation than the UK or USA.
I feel many could learn that their local personal experience is not necessarily what it's like elsewhere. My experience as a POC in the USA (1 year), France (1 year), UK (10 year), and Norway (25 years) are very different. I've experience racism everywhere but to me it felt different, but I would never claim my experiences in the USA or France is indicative of what it's like to be a POC there. Nor would my experience as a mixed, Norwegian born POC be the same as the experience a non-norwegian born POC living here.
So criticism of someone from across the oceans with close to zero knowledge of the political situation, in any of the Nordic countries, nor what representation looks like in the media in these countries, is hard to let lie without any response. Since US culture is so prominent and embraced here, everytime it's mentioned how "pearly white" the Nordics are it encourage the rhetoric around us actually being overrepresented in politics, news media, when we're absolutely not.
I have to agree with this. It's not conductive to a constructive discussion to dismiss the nordic countries as monoliths of whiteness, because that simply doesn't correlate with reality. It simply perpetuates the myth of what the far right wants the nordic countries to be.
I'm not a person of colour, myself, but I very much want to normalise the multiculturalism that is growing in my home country. I want it to be a diverse place, and that viewpoint is under attack from the far right, with the swedish democrats leading the charge. It's a bummer to see their ideal image of my country perpetuated as true by people on this board solely because of ignorance.
Even tho, I do wonder: from what I've seen, examples of how good the quality of life can be in a Nordic country is always from people who made it, but can life still be good in a Nordic country if you haven't made it?
I'm not sure what you mean by "made it." There is povery in Sweden, and I'd assume that recent immigrants are overrepresented in that category, but we rank second lowest in the poverty index of the entire EU after Luxembourg. Quality of life is good for most that live here, but as has been reported from some posters in this thread, you will likely hit the ceiling quicker if you have the wrong name, which is absolutely down to racism.
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