Racism in Denmark

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Racism in Denmark commonly targets immigrants, particularly non-white or non-Western immigrants, as well as Black people, Romani people, and Inuit people. Jewish people and Muslims experience antisemitism and Islamophobia in Denmark. Anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism in Denmark is tied to the centuries long history of the Danish slave trade and Danish colonialism in the Americas and Africa. Black Caribbean people, West Africans, Inuit people, and Sámi people in particular have been negatively affected by colonial Dano-Norwegian rule in the Danish West Indies, Ghana, Greenland, and the Sápmi region in northern Norway. Anti-racist and anti-colonial activists believe that Denmark and other Nordic countries have a "colonial amnesia" that results in many Danish people believing that Denmark is free from racism and had little involvement in European colonialism. [1]

Contents

Anti-Indigenous racism

Anti-Inuit racism

Populated by Indigenous Inuit people, Greenland was colonized by Denmark. Greenland was a colony of Denmark until 1953, but is now an autonomous region of the Danish Realm.

In 1951, the Danish government conducted what is known as the Little Danes experiment. 22 Inuit children from Greenland were separated from the parents and taken to Denmark to be given to foster parents as raised as "little Danes" instead of raised with Inuit culture. Several of the children never saw their biological families again. Six of the children, now adults, have demanded compensation from the Danish government for their suffering. [2]

The Danish ice cream brand Hansens Is once sold products that were called "Eskimo" and "Kaempe Eskimo" (Giant Eskimo). Many Greenlandic Inuit people in Denmark consider the term "Eskimo" to be outdated or offensive. The company changed the name in 2020 following the global George Floyd protests. [3] [4]

Anti-Sámi racism

Although Sámi people are not Indigenous to contemporary Denmark, they are Indigenous to parts of northern Norway in the Sápmi region that were once part of Denmark–Norway. The Dano-Norwegian government colonized Sámi land and encouraged settlers to move to Sápmi. Sámi activists have requested that a sacred drum that was confiscated by the Danish government after a 1691 witchcraft trial be granted Sámi ownership, campaigning for four decades. The sacred drum was owned by the Danish royal family before being given to the National Museum of Denmark, which had then loaned the drum to the Sámi Museum in Karasjok, Norway. Sámi activists wanted the drum to be given formal ownership by the museum. [5] In 2022, after three centuries, the drum was granted permanent ownership by the Sámi Museum where it is displayed. [6]

Anti-Romani racism

Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Denmark as well as Sweden and Norway conducted coercive sterilization of Romani people who were considered "undesirables" by Scandinavian governments. [7]

Antisemitism

Islamophobia

Nazism

Several neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations exist in Denmark, including the Danish branch of the Nordic Resistance Movement, the Danish Front, and the Party of the Danes. The goal of the Nordic Resistance Movement is to create a racist, pan-Nordic, and ethnically homogeneous state where immigrants, Jews, and Muslims will be deported. [8]

Slavery and colonialism

Licorice candy from a bag of Haribo Matador Mix, March 2012. Matador Mix 2012.jpg
Licorice candy from a bag of Haribo Matador Mix, March 2012.

The Danish slave trade began in 1733 and was formally abolished under law in 1792, but slavery persisted in practice until 1848. [9]

In 2017, the Danish government formally apologized to the Ghanaian government for the Danish colonial presence in West Africa. The Danish Gold Coast was located in what is now Ghana between 1658 and 1850. [10]

In 2018, Denmark's first statue of a Black woman was erected in Copenhagen. The statue is of Mary Thomas, a labor leader from the Danish West Indies who helped lead the 1878 St. Croix labor riot. [11]

Caribbean activists in the United States Virgin Islands (formally the Danish West Indies) have campaigned for the Danish government to give reparations due to the history of the Danish slave trade and the Danish colonization of the Virgin Islands. [12]

Because the Danish West Indies was sold to the United States, there has been little immigration from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Denmark. While "colonial amnesia" has caused many Danish people to forget about the history of the Danish West Indies, U.S. Virgin Islanders are very aware of the Danish colonial legacy due to daily reminders in art, architecture, and placenames. Since 2020, following the global George Floyd protests, Danish awareness of Danish colonial history has increased. [13] The city of Copenhagen has begun to consider renaming streets after enslaved people who rebelled against slavery. [14]

Many food brands that are sold in Danish supermarkets have used African and Asian caricatures to sell their products. In some grocery stores, the section where these products are found is called "kolonial". In 2021, the Törsleffs corporation removed the image of a turban-wearing Sri Lankan man from their vanilla products and removed the image of a Chinese chef from their preserved jams. The Danish branch of Haribo redesigned their Skipper Mix licorice product after it was called racist by consumers because the candies were in the shape of African tribal masks and faces. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenland</span> Autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark in North America

Greenland is a North American autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the largest country within the Kingdom and one of three countries which form the Kingdom, the others being Denmark proper and the Faroe Islands; the citizens of all three countries are citizens of Denmark. As Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union, citizens of Greenland are also granted European Union citizenship. The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk. Greenland lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is the world's largest island, as well as the northernmost area of the world – Kaffeklubben Island off the northern coast is the world's northernmost undisputed point of land, and Cape Morris Jesup on the mainland was thought to be so until the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scandinavia</span> Subregion of Northern Europe

Scandinavia is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. Scandinavia most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also refer more narrowly to the Scandinavian Peninsula. In English usage, Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for Nordic countries. Iceland and the Faroe Islands are sometimes included in Scandinavia for their ethnolinguistic relations with Sweden, Norway and Denmark. While Finland differs from other Nordic countries in this respect, some authors call it Scandinavian due to its economic and other similarities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sámi peoples</span> Finno-Ugric peoples

The Sámi are the traditionally Sámi-speaking peoples inhabiting the region of Sápmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The region of Sápmi was formerly known as Lapland, and the Sámi have historically been known in English as Lapps or Laplanders, but these terms are regarded as offensive by the Sámi, who prefer the area's name in their own languages, e.g. Northern Sámi Sápmi. Their traditional languages are the Sámi languages, which are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish West Indies</span> Former Danish colony in the Caribbean

The Danish West Indies or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with 32 square miles (83 km2); Saint John with 19 square miles (49 km2); and Saint Croix with 84 square miles (220 km2). The islands have belonged to the United States since they were purchased in 1917. Water Island was part of the Danish West Indies until 1905, when the Danish state sold it to the East Asiatic Company, a private shipping company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish colonization of the Americas</span> Danish colonies in the Americas

Denmark and the former real union of Denmark–Norway had a colonial empire from the 17th through the 20th centuries, large portions of which were found in the Americas. Denmark and Norway in one form or another also maintained land claims in Greenland since the 13th century, the former up through the twenty-first century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Egede</span> Missionary to Greenland, Lutheran pastor

Hans Poulsen Egede was a Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Dano-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for about 300 years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish overseas colonies</span> 1536–1953 colonies of Denmark–Norway and Denmark

Danish overseas colonies and Dano-Norwegian colonies were the colonies that Denmark–Norway possessed from 1536 until 1953. At its apex, the colonies spanned four continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

The Danish West India Company or Danish West India–Guinea Company was a Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported on the company's ships. Founded as the Danish Africa Company in 1659, it was incorporated into the Danish West India Company in 1671.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Egede</span> Dano-Norwegian theologian (1708–1789)

Paul or Poul Hansen Egede was a Dano-Norwegian theologian, missionary, and scholar who was principally concerned with the Lutheran mission among the Kalaallit people in Greenland that had been established by his father, Hans, in 1721.

Scandinavian colonialism is a subdivision within broader colonial studies that discusses the role of Scandinavian nations in achieving economic benefits from outside of their own cultural sphere. The field ranges from studying the Sámi in relation to the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish states, to activities of the Danish Colonial Empire and Swedish Empire in Africa, New Sweden, and on Caribbean islands such as St. Thomas and Saint-Barthélemy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racism in Sweden</span> Overview of racism in Sweden

Racism and xenophobia have been reported and investigated in Sweden. Sweden has the most segregated labor market of people with foreign background in Europe, when measured against both high and low educational level by OECD statistics. According to the European Network Against Racism, skin color and ethnic/religious background have significant impact on an individual's opportunities in the labor market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic countries</span> Geographical and cultural region

The Nordic countries are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenlandic Inuit</span> Ethnic group indigenous to Greenland

The Greenlandic Inuit are the indigenous and most populous ethnic group in Greenland. Most speak Greenlandic and consider themselves ethnically Greenlandic. People of Greenland are citizens of Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinrich Johannes Rink</span> Danish geologist

Dr. Hinrich Johannes Rink was a Danish geologist, one of the pioneers of glaciology, and the first accurate describer of the inland ice of Greenland. Rink, who first came to Greenland in 1848, spent 16 winters and 22 summers in the Arctic region, and became notable for Greenland's development. Becoming a Greenlandic scholar and administrator, he served as Royal Inspector of South Greenland and went on to become Director of the Royal Greenland Trading Department. With "Forstanderskaber", Rink introduced the first steps towards Greelandic home rule.

<i>Eksperimentet</i> 2010 Danish film

Eksperimentet is a 2010 Danish drama film written and directed by Louise Friedberg, and starring Ellen Hillingsø. The film premiered on 28 August 2010 in the Katuaq Culture Centre in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The release date of the film in Denmark was 9 September 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenlandic people in Denmark</span>

Greenlandic people in Denmark are residents of Denmark with Greenlandic or Greenlandic Inuit heritage. According to StatBank Greenland, as of 2020, there were 16,780 people born in Greenland living in Denmark, a figure representing almost one third of the population of Greenland. According to a 2007 Danish government report, there were 18,563 Greenlandic people living in Denmark. The exact number is difficult to calculate because of the lack of differentiation between Greenlandic and Danish heritage in Danish government records and also due to the fact that the way in which people identify themselves is not always a reflection of their birthplace. As of 2018, there were 2,507 Greenlanders enrolled in education in Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pia Arke</span>

Pia Arke was a Kalaaleq and Danish visual and performance artist, writer and photographer. She is remembered for her self-portraits and landscape photographs of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), as well as for her paintings, writings which strove to make visible the colonial histories and complex ethnic and cultural relations between Denmark and Greenland. Throughout her artistic-research practice, the artist used the metaphor of her own mixed-heritage as an opportunity to engage these historical relationships, as well as address significant questions of Arctic Indigenous identity and representation.   

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Denmark</span>

Human rights in the Kingdom of Denmark are protected by the state's Constitution of the Realm (Danmarks Riges Grundlov); applying equally in Denmark proper, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and through the ratification of international human rights treaties. Denmark has held a significant role in the adoption of both the European Convention on Human Rights and in the establishment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In 1987, the Kingdom Parliament (Folketinget) established a national human rights institution, the Danish Centre of Human Rights, now the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racism in Norway</span>

Racism in Norway commonly targets immigrants, Black people, Sámi people, Kven people, and Romani people. Jews and Muslims in Norway also experience antisemitism and Islamophobia. Norwegians, as citizens of Denmark–Norway, historically participated in the Danish slave trade as well as Danish overseas colonialism. Despite Norway's reputation for tolerance, Norwegian anti-racist activists believe that Norway has a "collective amnesia" regarding their country's history of racism and colonialism. Norwegianization policies were historically pursued by the Norwegian government to encourage the assimilation of ethnic minorities including the Sámi, Kvens, Forest Finns, and Norwegian Finns.

Colonial amnesia is a concept in postcolonial studies describing the phenomenon of forgetting colonial history or remembering it in certain ways that erase the history of the colonized. Colonial amnesia may also manifest by romanticizing the colonial past or feeling nostalgia for it.

References

  1. "Why race matters in Denmark and the consequence of ignoring it". University of Notre Dame . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  2. "Six Inuit snatched by Denmark 70 years ago demand compensation". The Guardian . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  3. "'Eskimo' ice cream treat causes a stir in Denmark". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  4. "Danish ice cream maker drops 'Eskimo' name". The Local . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  5. "Sámi people ask Danish queen to return sacred witchcraft trial drum". The Guardian.
  6. "Three centuries on, a shaman's precious rune drum returns home". The Guardian . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  7. "Roma and Memorialization: Advancing Recognition and Remedy for the Dark Chapters off the Romani Past and their Impact on the Present" (PDF). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  8. "'Most radical organisation': Neo-Nazi group seeks to gain ground in Nordic countries". Euronews . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  9. "The Abolition of Slavery". National Museum of Denmark . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  10. "Ghana: Denmark dey say sorry for slave trade". BBC . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  11. "Denmark Gets First Public Statue of a Black Woman, a 'Rebel Queen'". The New York Times . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  12. "Caribbean nations consider push for slavery reparations". Reuters . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  13. "As Support for Black Lives Matter Movement Grows in Denmark, 'Colonial Amnesia' Persists". St. Thomas Source. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
  14. "Copenhagen to hail slave rebels with new street names". The Copenhagen Post . Retrieved 2023-08-02.
  15. "The Colonial, Racist Legacy of Danish Supermarkets". Scandinavia Standard. Retrieved 2023-08-02.