Etikettarkiv: racism

society

To the ”Alt right” movement: let’s talk about Sweden rape stats.

Lämna en kommentar

​Listen up all you ”alt right” people who point at Swedens rape statistics saying Sweden is the no 1 rape country. Let’s talk about the stats and how you guys say Sweden is destroy by a ”rape wave” and in the same time like to spread the myth about women lying about being raped.
Let’s start with the part about women’s false rape accusations. It’s widely spread that about 7-14% of all reported rape cases are false but absurd numbers saying up to 80% of all reported rape cases are false takes it laps around the Internet. The truth is that only 1-1.5% of reported rapes are proven false. The majority of them doesn’t have an named suspect, which is a main reason that they are labeled as false. The typical false reporter of rape is a young girl who says she’s been raped by one or more strangers in a public space. In many of the reported cases that are labels as false there is a suspicion that the victim has been subject to a crime she of some reason doesn’t dare to report. Which means she HAS been victimised in some way, just not raped in the way she reported. (1,2 Swedish sources use Google translate). BRÅ (the Swedish bureau of crime prevention) estimates that there’s about 112 instances of rape being committed in Sweden each day. The majority of these are committed in a relationship but the rapes conducted by an totally unknown or mostly unknown rapist are the ones the victims are most inclined to report, or at least recognise when asked about if they ever been raped. 

When it comes to Sweden as the country with the most rapes in the world and the idea that this is 100% because of immigration: In Sweden about 30% of the population have roots outside of Sweden (Source SCB, Swedens statistical central bureau.). That means that they are either born outside of Sweden or has one or both parents born outside of Sweden. A little more than half of this group  (approx 16% of the populatiom) are males. And about 7% of the population are men with roots outside of Europe. Statistics show that about 25% of Swedish women have been raped at least once in their life. This means that the 7% non European male population  (including 1 yo boys and very old men) really rapes a lot to keep those figures up. The alternative is that European and Swedish white men also take their share in the statistics raping women…

Well. Puting that aside. 25%, or 1 in every 4 women have been raped at some point in their life. That sounds incredible high right? And it is a lot. But not by far the highest numbers in the world. In India the nubers are twice as high as in Sweden. In South Africa 1 in 3 women reported being raped during the last 12 month. Other numbers suggest around 3600 people being raped in SA _every day_. (4) In Kongo reports suggest that somewhere between 80-90% of women older than 13 has been brutally raped as part of the conflicts in the country where rape is used as a weapon. In USA the rape statistics are about the same as in Sweden. A little more than 1 of 4 women reports being raped during their life and about 1 in 5 female college students will have been raped by the time they finished school.  I could go on. Swedens statistics is due to a lot of reasons. For example; Sweden is one of few countries who sees any form of penetration without consent as rape, regardless the sex of the victim and regardless of what is used for the penetration. We also has the exact same rules regarding rape in a marriage as outside of it. Something a lot of countries doesn’t have and rape or violence in a marriage isn’t considered a criminal offence. We also have an ongoing discussion about rape and sexual assaults making women of today mostly aware about the fact that being groped in a festival public or having someone’s fingers pushed up between the legs in a toilet line is illegal. Things that a lot of other societies  (and a lot of men in Sweden) still sees as something natural women just have to deal with and accept as part of being in public spaces. (3) When it comes to reporting rape we have a bit of different way to put in the reports in the statistics, in Sweden every rape is filed once per occurancie AND once per offender. This means that if I get raped 30 times by my partner and file a report every occurance is one ”dot” in the statistics  (ie 30 cases of rape). If a woman is raped by 4 men the statistics will show 4 cases of group rapes. It’s simply very easy to make the wrong conclusions if statistics are evaluated side by side without deeper understandings. But if we are to compare the statistics right off it is actually a good thing that our level of reporting sexual offense and our wide definition of rape is what it is. Sweden may be sticking out in comparison to other countries but it is not necessary a bad thing. 

So, little ”Alt right”:ers, how will it be? Are Sweden the rape capital flooded with a rape wave or do women lie about how often they get assaulted? You know you can’t have both. And in the first case you will have to deal with the fact that Swedish men rape a lot more than you want to think about. 

(1) http://www.expressen.se/gt/falska-valdtaktsanmalningar-ytterst-ovanliga/

(2) https://www.advokaten.se/Tidningsnummer/2008/Nr-4-2008-Argang-74/Felaktiga-forestallningar-om-falska-valdtaktsanmalningar-gor-att-de-mest-utsatta-kvinnorna-sviks/

(3) http://www.metro.se/artikel/här-är-sanningen-bakom-statistiken-för-våldtäktslandet-sverige-xr

(4) https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/general-news/2015/2015-06/rape-stats-poorly-reflect-reality.html

society

There is no easy answers to human behaviours.

Lämna en kommentar

The ”immigrant critical” and so called ”Sweden friendly” have 3 main issues right now that they try to get into every debate they have. As usual they think the answers is easy and that ayone who says otherveis is stupid. This is standard procedure for those who vote for The Sweden Democrats but in these issues a lot of people across the political landscape believe in easy answers. When we talk about human beings and our behaviours there´s never an easy answer. Human interaction is not an easy subject to analyse. I will give my thoughts on these 3 issues: 1. Make all immigrants that commitet a crime to leave Sweden. 2. Do not allow seperate bath times for women/transpeople and men in public bath houses. 3. Do not allow married minors to live with their husbands.

  1. Make all immigrants who commited crimes in Sweden to leave the country.

det_svarta_fc3a5ret

The debate about how immigrants who commits crimes should be banned från Sweden started around christmas. In part started by the journalist Joakim Lamotte who wrote an (mildy put)undifferentiated text on his Facebook wall about 4 young men from northern Africa who cant get banned from Sweden since there is no proof on what country is their original one. Lamotte and a lot of his follower base thought that it doesnt matter if we dont know what country someone is from, they schould get banned anyway. Just send the ”garbage” away and be done with it. If they end up tortured, killed or left of in a country they have no connection with is nothing to take in consideration. Out they go and thats the only thing thats matter.

It´s a short road to easy answers when emotions run high after 4 guys has made an horrific rape, to ask for the guys to be bannes from Sweden no matter the consequences is not hard to do. On the other hand, we are supposed to be an justice safe country (inser ironic laugh) and that means it doesnt work to just kick people out of the contry when we dont know where they came from, or when we know where they from and that they will be tortured or killed if we send them back. In Swedish law we already have room to bann people from Sweden if they commits heavy crimes like rape or murder, if they dont have a swedish citizenship. However, this is restricted by the international human rights which means its not ok to send people to a country where they will be tortured or killed.

To start to overlook the human rights is easy when it comes to people who has done so heavy crimes that people think they have lost their human worth. The problem is that if we start to neglect the human rights or ignore them completley in some matters is it not hard to start to neglect them in other issues too. When we start to ignore the human right to seek asylum and escape from war we are on a dangerous path for all of us. The countrys who has gone furthest to reject the asylum rights is also those who has started to make big restrictions in things like freedom of speach by making demonstrations and protest illigal. Is that the road we want to walk down?

2. Dont allow seperate bathing times.

c3a4ventyrsbad.jpg

This issue has divided more than one feministic group but for most people it seems to have one easy answer: That seperated bathing times is a big step backwards in an society that works for equality and for the islamophobic bunch its an neon sign for the radical islamisation of western societies.

Separated bath-times is not a new invention. A lot of bath houses have had this for ages where 2-3 hours a week has been dedicated to women, and another 2-3 hours for men. There is also dedicated time for light exercise swimming and time where exercise swim is not allowed. No one protest about the exercise swiming times but a lot of people loses their minds when it comes to have seperate bath times based on gender. But, to be correct, the genderbased bath-times has not been a problem before it was labeled as a ”muslim comand”. I believe it was not viewed as an problem earlier bacause 1. people understood why mostly women found it nice to be able to take a swim without men present. 2. There has not been an racist aspekt of the discussion to the subject before. A lot of those who oppose seperated bath-times know the profit from it but just dont want any muslim woman to have an easier time in Sweden.

It is easy to see seperated bath-times as an step back in the equality process, on the other hand we hav´nt made an backward progress in all these years seperated bath-times has existed. We do not live in a perfect society, there are a lot of genderbased problems left and some of them includes men harrasing women or transpeople in public bath houses. No matter how wrong it seems at a first glance that women and transpeople are afraid to bath with men we cant solve it but telling them to suck it up and swim with men anyway. We must be able to work on this issue in more than one way at the same time. It must be possible for women and transpeople to swim without the fear of men and in the same time work so that men will stop harrasing others in the bath-houses.

In my opinion is seperated bath-times an temporary solution so enable women and transpeople who are not allowed, or dont dare to, bathe with men to still have an oportunity to go to the bath-house. This is not an soultion for these problems that can stick forever, but as long as we have an problem with men missbihaving in the bath-houses this is an solution to minimize the symtom of an unequal society.

3. Dont allow married minors to stay with their husbands.  

Äktenskap

With war and unsafe living around the globe the ammount of refugees coming to Sweden has rappidly increased. This also means that more minors (girls) that has been forced into child marriage comes to Sweden. Most of the time they arrive with their (often much older) husbands. Child marriages is nothing we ever should allowe, of course, but how we are supposed to act when married minors enter Sweden is not an easy question.

We know that a normalization process is the main thing when it comes to abusive relationships. Its the same way with child marriages. Those who get married as a child knows thats what is expected of her and her life. After a long time as a refugee, fleeing war and terror and everything else it means, her husband becomes the one she feels safe with. Even if the base of the marriage is forced and the relationships is abusive the normalization process can make the husband the only saftey the gilr has. As humans we can find security and support even in the most horrible situations if it get to become our normal, everyday life.

If the girl and her husband are allowed to live together after they arrive to Sweden we give the girl her security and an opportunity to have an eye on their relationship to see if theres abuse in it. Girls the age of 16-17 living with older partners in Sweden is not that unusual, but most of the times its not forced upon them. This still means that a minor living with an adult partner is not by default an abusive relationship. When it comes to child marriages the incitament for abusive relationships is greater so its an good idea to not let the couple be without supervision. If we force the couple apart the oportunity to see if theres an abusive relationship gets lost, while we increase the risk of the girl going back to her husband the day she turns 18.

To let minors live with their husbands can be a way to help the girl out of an bad relationship on her terms which has a much greater chans of success, instead of acting the way that feels most moraly correct to us.

 

frabz-Its-Complicated-6b785c.jpg

To summon it up: There is never any easy answers, and we do not win in the political and social fight by pretending that there is.

Adoptionpolitics

In the land of inbetween.

Lämna en kommentar

To live ”Inbetween” is nothing new but its not offen talked about in Sweden. Thats why i will start the new year of 2016 to write about this. The ”inbetweenship” is what a lot of us adoptees but also children to immigrants has to deal with.

The inbetweenships is about expectations from the society that we are suppose to be part of a culture people _think_ we belong when they see our exterior (african culture, south american culture etc), but in the meantime we are expected to be fully intergrated with the community we live in. The first part make us exkluded from the second part. We are viewed upon as not belonging in Sweden, that we are not ”real swedes” or that we dont have a given place in Sweden, but since we have lived in Sweden and know only the Swedish culture we dont fit in if we should go back to the country where we have our roots. Going back where we, or our parents, was born we are acting, and are treated, like common turists.

As an adoptee the inbetweenship can become extra  visible. Where immigrants and their children can find support and community with each other the adoptee stands alone. We who are adopted offen grow up in an almost white surroundng, missing out on the chance to interact with people we can mirror ourselves in. The representation in media is also extremley white which gives us few oportunities to find characters in movies, TV or books to relate to. To talkt about this as an adoptee is hard, we are expected to not have an need to see children from around the world on tv, or to be able to fins non stereotypical characters fom the countrys we where born in, in the childrens book we are reading. To talk about such topics, about the fact that you dont feel fully att home in the country is a huge risk to take, one easily get pointed out as whiney, egocentrical and ungrateful for complaining.

 

adoption

If your adopted you should only be grateful to be here, to not feel at home because of the racist society is seen as accusations towards those who has adopted. Because of this a lot of adoptees keep silent about how they feel inbetween cultures. Searching for roots to try to find some kind of belonging is a big step to make for an adoptee. Will the adoptive parents think that the adoptee dont like them any more? What will happen if the biological parents are found? Its not unusal that adoptees searching their roots are called backwards going and silly. ”DNA is not everything”, ”Why is what you have enough?” – Thats how it can sound, or worse. If you on top of this also are chritical to how international adoption is performed, or the fact that a lot of adoptees end up in between cultures, than it can really make people go into a spin of pure hatred that you are not grateful enough. We are supposed to be happy and grateful, anything else is wrong and we have only our self to blame if we are not happy with the way society treats us.

To talk about this ”inbetweenship”, especially for adoptees, is also important if we are going to have an understanding for what happens when adoptees, or other, is trying to find an identity in this society. Lately i have seen people of color who have an secure identity in their culture laugh at and make fun of  adoptees and others who try to find where they belong. They are accused of ”faking it”, trying to seem exposed, or in some cases being accused of not being a victim of racism at all since they are not been growing up in the ”hood”. (The hood in Sweden is suburbs to the bigger cities lika Stockholm and Gothenburg with a high population of immigrants)  This fixation of being from ”the hood” have made people romanticize living in the hood. To be from the hood is seen as a evidence that you are ”racialized for real” and suddenly we who are adopted find ourselves once again out in the cold. Most of us who are adopted are not from the hood, many of us have never lived there, but that does not mean that we dont have to face racism, or that we are not racialized. Besides, ”the hood” is something that excist in one way or another in all cities in Sweden, and I can tell you when i grew up I was jealous of those who grew up in Stockholm for example, because they got something i didnt: Somewhere they belonged.

When people who didnt grew up in the hood, but who are racialized, is trying to mimic cultural expressions created in the hood they are trying to find somewhere they can fit in. its not about trying to fake it. Its about finding a place where you are accepted for who you are, where you can see yourself in the people around you and talk to people who allso know about the racism you meet. Guess if it hurts when this search is met with mockery and exclusion? The inbetweenship make us who are stuck between cultures to walt a thin line all the time. If we seek to much acceptance and community white the white population theres a huge risk of internalisize racism and start turning against other people of color. If we try to reenforce our cultural heritage from the coutry we or our parents was born the risk is instead that we make western mistakes, or get accused of faking our roots. No matter what we do we cant make the right thing and get forced back to living between cultures in the lack of a place to fit in.

By talking more about this we who experience being in between can start finding our own comunity with each other, rather than with those who has the privilige of never having to doubt where they belong. Theres not only problem with the mockery of thos who live between cultures, but also a witch hunt on what is called ”identity politics”(idpol for short). Idpol has an important place in the political discussion, not always but often. Its easy for those wo never have experienced a lack of belonging to say that identity is not important, but for those who has never had the chance to fully belong identity matter, and for all of us (even with a strong identity and belonging) that again and again has to hear that our identity is not good enough for this society identiy gets even more important. Its about reclaiming who we are, to belong and to be able to say ”This is who I am and this is where i belong!”

lost

 

To be inbetween is a constan nagging feeling of being lost. To look for your home but never finding it. Its door being closed in your face over and over againg and in the samte time when you try to talk about it having people telling you its not happening, that this is where you supposed to be. To live inbetween is a long line of contradictions and its not easy to get past, but if we start talking about it some more, maybe a few of us get a chance to find their way.