Pest or cholera?

Did you see the last episode of Skavlan with Jimmie Åkesson last week? They showed the  infamous commercial for the Swedish Democrats where an old lady is competing against a group of women dressed in burqa in a race to get tax-money; a commercial that certainly leaves a bad aftertaste. But not only the commercial is troublesome, the way the situation was dealt with also raised some questions. When talking about SD and their role in the society it is often said that they increase the polarisation in leading us to tolerate more subtle racism. But I would say that they are not the only contributing factor, we all play a part whether we like to see it or not. The ignorance that Jimme Åkesson showed by saying that he could not see the racism that was displayed in the video-clip was striking and Skavlan, as expected, tried to tell him that it is a racist clip, but he failed to explain why it is racist, which is where the problems with this kind of media-exposure begins. It was like watching two kids: one saying "this is a banana" and the other one replying "no, it is an apple" and nothing more; both are convinced that they know the names of fruits.

So, who is to blame for the situation? Skavlan is responsible for his show and he chooses to invite who he wants. For this show I don't think he had done his research very well. Most people with a bit of imagination could have beforehand guessed that something like that was going to happen, we have seen it so many times before. A host for one of the biggest national talkshows should then be aware and not let those indoctrinations be repeated on the show. Perhaps part of the problem is that he understands that the clip is racist but can't explain why, although as someone working with tv he surely must be aware of how power and structures are reproduced in media, thinking anything else would be an insult. But why didn't he say something? He could have done so many things; pointed out that the clip, by only showing the face of the white woman, reduced the muslim women into a collective, leading the viewers to identify with her rather than them. He could have pointed out that the whole clip is based on a lie since immigration is not a cost that will overpower our society, but rather good for it economically (not that helping people should ever be priced, just saying). I'm not saying that I think by doing so he could have won the argument over Åkesson, but I think he could have shown us viewers a way to question racism and show that it is not ok to sit on national tv and repeat racist doctrines. Now, despite good intentions, nothing changed. And that is why I am tired of all of this. While the racism is being questioned on a shallow level, the racist structure that our society is built on is not being held accountable. Our institutions are not being scrutinised. Media are not asking themselves "what kind of structures are we reproducing that enables racism to be spread through our channels?" We need to see what is hidden under the surface, because after all, what is worse? the racism we can see openly, or the one we can't see, we can't explain, but only feel creeping under our skin?