Our everyday reality in Finland is very white due to our demographic structure. However, the White Standard often refers not only to the colour of people's skin but also to the invisible social hierarchies and power relations where Westernism and Europeanism are seen as a standard defining social structures. Normality only emerges when it is made visible or deviated from it. Normal whiteness is an integral part of our Finnish and national identity. In Finland, people's images are tied to white, and people who are not in the norm are interpreted as foreigners. Whiteness works in also other ways than normative. Whiteness can be part of practices, routines and cultural meanings. (Keskinen, 2021, 45-68.)
The white standard often produces hierarchical thinking structures where white Europeanism is seen as superior or superior to other cultures. It's a problem not to recognize this. Among other things, Jamaican sociologist Shirley Anne Tate has written about white innocence, in which whiteness justifies unwillingness to know about racism and power relations. . Unwillingness covers the reluctance to see knowledge, political activity and lifestyles that have been developed by others. Speaking about racism and changing its practices often leads to denial and resistance. A critical discussion of whiteness can often reveal the affective side of racial relations, including white fragility, embarrassment, self-pity, guilt and anger. Such negative reactions prevent the analysis of power relations and make it difficult to tackle racism. (Keskinen, 2021, 45-68.)
I am sure that each of us has heard a racist joke in everyday life, for example. The concept of everyday racism highlights the point of view of the sufferer of racism and tackles the regularity of racism. It can be hostile shouting, calling or subtle exclusion, racial exoticism, or patronizing. Often there is talk of micro-aggressions, i.e. deliberate or non-transparent acts and comments that strengthen racist stereotypes or otherwise repeat them. The Non-Discrimination Ombudsman's website gives, for example, a situation in which a white-raised person praises non-whites for how well he speaks Finnish, while at the same time demonstrating that a brown person cannot speak Finnish as his native language. Harmless questions and comments can therefore become offensive and cumulative to the target.
Racism in everyday life is not random; its various manifestations repeat a certain structure of power. However, racism is not always related to body, such as in the case of Russians, Muslims, and Jews. What is essential is that racism contains demeaning and hierarchical assumptions about the group to which it is directed. Anti-Semitism, on the other hand, means racism against Jews and its historical roots. Recent research debate has talked about anti-immigration racism, which is intended to highlight the fact that extreme right-wing populist movement is not about criticism of the social debate, but about systematic, hostile and hierarchical demeaning towards certain groups. (Keskinen, 2021, 45-68.)
Our daily life also covers living in a university institution and participating in its activities. Finnish universities appear to be particularly white places. Despite this, there has been little discussion of racism in academic circles. However, universities are in the highest discriminatory structure of education, and in a racially-represented power ratio, as education renews the power structures prevailing in society. It is important to remember that the university is not a value-free actor. (Alemanji & Seikkula 2018, 180.)
University employees who have been bred as whites play a key role in creating an equal university. Those who have been raced white can ignore racial issues, as they can be seen as problems for someone else. Staff can see racial problems as less important compared to other issues in their field of science. Thus, racial matters are outsourced for someone else to handle, for (white) staff feel that racial matters do not concern them. Staff have the power to decide which subject is important, worthy of study, intellectually weighing and relevant. If the staff are not interested in improving equality, there is a risk that future academics, current students, will repeat the same racist ideas and mistakes. (Gordon 2007.)
There is also a risk that students who have been raced brown will have to teach other students or even university staff. It is problematic if students who have been raced white see themselves as non-racial, for it adds to the idea that racial issues do not apply to white students.
The university as an institution has been built in such a way as to make it easier for others to identify themselves with the institution, to feel welcome, and to flourish at the university, as it feels like its own. For others, being in college is uncomfortable and evokes feelings that they do not belong here. However, university members who have been raced into white must not act with the idea of trying to make non-whites part of the white “our” institution.
When we are inside the university institution, we may not be aware of all the benefits it brings, as they seem normal and expected. The invisibility of the benefits gained can lead to ideas that attempts to increase equality for others are unfair special treatment. The invisibility of benefits therefore makes the supposed special treatment more visible.
Minority staff members may also find more work, as they must represent their own minority in different contexts. On the other hand, minority students may fall into the role of activist, while at the same time they should carry out their normal duties. (Gordon 2007.)
The study found that blackened students were subjected to negative stereotypes and racist insults in everyday contacts at a university in Great Britain. Students said that the university’s standard was “acceptable racism”. The standard of 'acceptable racism' was produced by a ban on own responsibility when the individual was part of a racist situation. Racist phrases might, for example, have been put in the shadow of a joke or the experience of racism that has been brought up could be underestimated. The article thus claims that racist dissects are not based on ignorance or naivety of individuals. On the other hand, racist situations are based on historically and culturally aware standards. (Osbourne et al. 2022)
Racialized power arrangements allow white-bred students to set university standards and values, decide who belongs to the university and what is acceptable at the university. Power arrangements are not just based on a larger number of white students on campus, but are based on widely recognised social representation and disseminations that can be used to stigmatise and create stereotypes for black-raised students. In the context of the university, where the values of intelligence and rationality are respected, the participants in the study had heard that the raced were stupid, emotional, and angry.
The silence of black-raised students is not just about silence in racist situations. In daily situations, students belonging to a minority silence themselves because they want to avoid showing any differences or becoming a stereotype. So the students are quieted down by fear. If they do, they may face racism. The burden of racism remains with its victims. Too often, when it comes to micro-aggressions, we focus on the perpetrator of racism and his intentions. However, despite the intentions of the perpetrator of racism, racism is a major source of harm to the victim. The study highlights that micro-aggressions are the product of a racially hierarchical society. (Osbourne et al. 2022)
The university has gained its reputation as the power of repression, which produces discourses, methods, strategies, technologies, and forms of legitimacy for Western violence and exploitation of racial groups. The university was a source of information for rich whites, produced information according to their interests, in particular with regard to those who are the victims of colonisation, the enslaved, and the indigenous peoples whose countries were stolen, as well as many other secondary groups. (Tuskegee experiments, Heideggers tenure as rector at the Freiburg uni)
It is interesting to consider the historical and modern ways in which Western universities participate in the production and formation of knowledge that inevitably lead to violence, humiliation, torture and war, and for what reasons and to whom this information is produced and distributed (Giroux 2010, 4-28.).