Rasismi lasten ja nuorten arjessa. Transnationaalit juuret ja monikulttuuristuva Suomi

Abstract

Väitöstutkimukseni käsittelee rasismia Suomessa, erityisesti lasten ja nuorten arjessa. Tutkimuksen päätulos on etnografinen kuvaus rasismin erilaisista ilmenemismuodoista. Tarkastelu ajoittuu pääasiassa 1990-2000 luvuille, aikaan jolloin suomalaisesta yhteiskunnasta on alettu puhua monikulttuuristuvana yhteiskuntana. Tämä usean vuoden kenttätyön tuloksena syntynyt tutkimus osoittaa, että rasismia kohtaavat maahanmuuttajien ohella myös Suomessa suomalaisiksi kasvaneet ihmiset. Asemaansa ja identiteettiään suomalaisina joutuu pohtimaan esimerkiksi tutkimukseni kohdejoukko: lapset ja nuoret, joiden toinen vanhempi on (alun perin) jostain muualta kuin Suomesta sekä ulkomailta adoptoidut. Tutkimuksessani määrittelen heidät suomalaisiksi, joilla on transnationaalit juuret, eli siteitä paitsi Suomeen myös muihin valtioihin ja kansoihin. Tällaisten henkilöiden osuus väestöstä kasvaa jatkuvasti.

Analysoin tutkimuksessani niin arkisia kohtaamisia ja yksilöiden kokemuksia kuin rasismia suomalaisessa kulttuurissa. Työ valottaa sitä, miten ahtaat suomalaisuuden määritelmät sekä ympäristön tavat suhtautua muihin kansoihin ja kulttuureihin rakentavat joidenkin erilaisuutta. Avoimen rasismin - kiusaamisen, syrjinnän ja jopa väkivallan ­ lisäksi rasismilla on lasten ja nuorten arjessa muitakin ilmenemismuotoja ja seurauksia. Lasten ja nuorten identiteettien rakentumisprosesseissa vaikuttavat paitsi henkilökohtaiset rasismin kokemukset myös tieto ympäröivässä kulttuurissa vaikuttavasta rasismista.

Tutkimus paneutuu myös lasten ja nuorten mahdollisuuksiin käsitellä erilaisuuden ja rasismin kokemuksiaan, joista aikuiset, niin vanhemmat kuin esimerkiksi opettajat, ovat usein hyvin tietämättömiä. Aikuiset eivät myöskään aina osaa auttaa ja tukea rasismia kohdanneita lapsia. Suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa vallitsevat tavat puhua rasismista eivät nekään kannusta omista rasismin kokemuksista puhumiseen. Lasten mahdollisuudet vastustaa itseensä kohdistuvaa rasismia, kohtasivatpa he sitä sitten muiden lasten tai aikuisten taholta, näyttäytyvät tutkimukseni valossa hyvin vähäisiltä. Teos puhuu siksi aikuisten vastuusta. Se antaa välineitä vanhemmille ja kasvatustyön ammattilaisille rasismin tunnistamiseen ja rasismia kohdanneiden lasten ja nuorten tukemiseen. Se on suunnattu myös muille rasismin kysymyksistä, tutkimuksesta ja vastustamisesta kiinnostuneille.

Tutkimukseni keskeisintä aineistoa ovat lasten ja nuorten (n= 23) sekä vanhempien (n=26) haastattelut. Haastatteluaineiston lisäksi olen kirjannut muistiin vuosina 2000 - 2007 kohdejoukkoon kuuluvien ihmisten kanssa käymiäni keskusteluja sekä havaintojani erilaisissa lasten ja nuorten toimintaympäristöissä. Sillä lasten ja nuorten joukolla, jota tutkimukseni kuvaa, on siteitä yhteensä kymmeniin eri maihin Suomen ulkopuolelle. Kohdejoukon heterogeenisyys on tehnyt mahdolliseksi tarkastella sitä, millaisia mielikuvia eri maihin ja kansoihin liitetään, ja sitä miten nämä vaikuttavat ihmisten rasismin kokemuksiin ja heidän mahdollisuuksiinsa torjua rasismia. Olen analysoinut rasismin kokemuksia ja niiden jäsentämistä myös suhteessa informanttieni ikään ja sukupuoleen. Suomalaisessa kulttuurissa vaikuttavaa rasismia tarkastellessani osana aineistoa ovat olleet erilaiset mediatekstit, lasten kulttuurituotteet ja muut dokumentit.

Väitöstutkimukseni koostuu nyt julkaistavasta yhteenvedosta sekä kuudesta aiemmin julkaistusta artikkelista. Artikkelit on julkaistu myös verkossa väitöstutkimuksen sähköisen version yhteydessä ja niihin pääsee sivun 7 artikkelilistan kautta.

Racism in the everyday life of children and young people. Transnational roots and multicultural Finland in the making.

This dissertation consists of an overview and six separate articles published previously. The overview begins by outlining why I have chosen children s and adolescents experiences as the starting point of this study of racism in Finland. I explain this decision both by referring to population statistics and by arguing that in studies of racism, children s experiences and their position in racialized relations and hierarchies have usually been ignored.

In order to show that some phenomena have to be seen as expressions, or as consequences, of racism, I wanted to study people whose difference and experiences cannot be explained by cultural differences. Thus, I constructed a focus group which I call people with transnational roots . I chose my informants with transnational roots, ie people who have ties both to Finland and to another country and nation, from among two groups: those Finns who have one parent with an immigrant or foreign background, and those who have been adopted to Finland from other countries. Even though they have grown up in Finland as Finnish citizens, and they know the culture as well as their peers do, their Finnishness and their right to belong is often questioned by the surrounding society. Encounters where this happens allow the examination of both open racism and racializing discourses and practices. My informants, altogether, have ties to dozens of different countries and nations outside Finland. The heterogeneity of the focus group makes it possible to examine the many manifestations of racism(s), the diversity of racialized identities and the various conditions in which they are constructed.

Integrating the political aims of anti-racism into the study is an ethical choice that has implications for the theoretical framework, the choice of methods and the final research questions. In chapter two I explicate how I have constructed the theoretical framework which can be defined as multidisciplinary. I combine discussions, concepts and methodological ideas from anthropology, sociology and social psychology as well as from cultural studies, feminist studies and postcolonial studies. I also locate this research within the fields of childhood studies and youth studies. At the end of this chapter I explain my efforts to construct and follow an anti-racist research agenda, and underline that in ethnographic research ethical questions are an essential part of the whole research process, not only questions that can be listed in advance.

The construction of the field and the data in this research is clarified in chapter three. The fieldwork which took several years to carry out is comprised of participatory observation, discussions, email correspondence and interviews with young people and parents, as well as participation in anti-racist activities. Part of the data consists of media and other cultural products. Negotiating the boundaries of the field, as well as my own roles during the fieldwork, was necessary, since questions of racism have been part of my personal life too, due to my own children belonging to the focus group of this study. In this chapter I illustrate how being in the field means different kinds of interaction, interventions and also feelings and emotions, and how all these affect the nature and the quality of the data.

In addition to the many years of fieldwork and interpretation rooted in ethnographic tradition, the methods used in the analyses are based on discourse analysis and a narrative approach. Children s and adolescents interviews were chosen as the starting point for the analyses. Chapter four deals with the way I have identified the different manifestations of racism, and the construction of racialized difference, in these interviews. This, along with the knowledge produced during the fieldwork, led to the choice of the final research questions (see articles I-VI).

The results are discussed in chapter five. First I give a general description of how racism is expressed and is experienced differently in different age groups: among small children, children of school age and youth. I also compare my findings with studies of racism in other countries. After that I give a description of how the articles (I-VI), published in different forums, together form a description of racism in Finland, and especially in the everyday life of young people. The articles, two of which have been published in English, can be read in the electronic version of this dissertation (see http://acta.uta.fi).

Article I, Rasismi: oppeja, asenteita, toimintaa ja seurauksia (Racism: doctrines, attitudes, actions and consequences) gives a description of what is known about racism in Finland in light of research on racism, both in Finland and elsewhere. While presenting different theoretical approaches to racism, I suggest that in order to identify racism and its consequences in any given society, a multidisciplinary approach is needed. That leads inevitably to broad definitions of racism. More specific definitions are useful when particular kinds of racisms are examined. I also discuss the necessity of seeing how concepts, and the definitions we associate with them, vary according to time and place.

Article II, Am I still white? Dealing with the colour trouble discusses the meanings of whiteness in Finland, and the meanings of my whiteness for this research.

Article III, Katseilla merkityt, silminnähden erilaiset. Lasten ja nuorten kokemuksia rodullistavista katseista (Visibly different, marked by gazes. Children´s and young people´s experiences of receiving racist stares), begins a description of the everyday life of children and young people who are noticed as non-Finns or less-Finnish . It focuses on the question of how in random, silent encounters in public places some children and young people are made aware not only of their being perceived as different, but also that they are seen through racializing stereotypes and hierarchies. I also ask how they negotiate such situations.

Article IV, Miksi rasismin kokemuksista on niin vaikea puhua? (Why is it so hard to talk about experiences of racism?) shows how prevailing discourses related to racism, and claims that racism is not a big problem in our society, can make it impossible for young people to talk about their experiences.

Article V, Racializing categorization among young people in Finland, explores the terms by which racial difference is articulated and constructed in the everyday life of young people. Even though many categorizations which are used among young Finns can be found in other societies too, the analysis reveals differences not only between Finland and other societies but also between children and young people, which highlights the problems in using racial categories as analytical tools. The article also explores the conditions for the construction of racialized identities by examining how individuals negotiate categories available to them, and how they themselves express their positionings in racialized social relations. Article VI, Neutraalisti rasistinen? Erään sanan politiikkaa (Neutrally racist? The politics of the N-word) looks at the different meanings given to the N-word in Finland. That word ( negro , nigger ) seems to be the most common pejorative racializing label amon! g young people. Together these two articles highlight the tensions and contradictions that set bounds for the agency of those who are subordinated in racialized social relations.

Chapter five of the overview ends with a list of new questions that can also be considered to be results of this research project. Questions related to the possibilities for anti-racism(s) in Finland, the consequences of racism in families that are divided by the colour line, and the lack of concepts that could be used in descriptions of racialized relations and hierarchies in Finland, are issues that in light of this dissertation call for further research.

Ethnographies are always partial truths . Even though this study is about racism, and race matters in the everyday life of many people with transnational roots, individuals ties to different countries, cultures and nations also mean other things. Many of my informants stressed that in spite of their experiences of racism, they do not want to be seen only as victims. The role of a victim is stigmatizing. They wanted to tell me also about the other dimensions of their transnational roots. The last chapter of the overview is about these aspects: practical, cognitive and imagined elements of transnational roots. In conclusion, I show that there are also young people who use root metaphors when they talk about their sense of belonging, their right to belong and have and build ties to many places at the same time.