Racism in Denmark

Last Thursday, I was required to attend a debate for one of my classes (Cross-Cultural Encounters in a European Context).  The debate was moderated by our professor and featured a member of the social liberal political party in Denmark, Radikale Venstre, and Dansk Folkeparti (the Danish People’s Party).

For those who are less than familiar with the Danish political landscape – so, essentially everyone reading this blog – Radikale Venstre is traditionally a centrist party with a history of forming coalitions with the centre-left Social Democrats.  Radikale Venstre is immigrant friendly and progressive on integration issues, at least by Danish standards.  The Dansk Folkeparti, however, is a radical right-wing populist party that is disgustingly xenophobic and holds extreme prejudice towards Islam and the Muslim immigrant community.

The man from DF said some of the most hateful things that I have ever heard from a politician’s mouth, save for Rick Santorum’s homophobic remarks and maybe some of the things that Jean-Marie Le Pen and Pim Fortuyn have said in the past.  He spoke as if Muslim is an ethnicity.  He used the words “immigrant” and “Muslim” almost completely interchangeably, made a lot of factually inaccurate points and used warped analysis of statistics to prove his points.  I challenged him on a remark that he made about Muslims being a hindrance to gay rights in Denmark by pointing out that Sweden was more advanced on gay rights and also much more progressive on issues of immigration and integration.

The point that struck me most during this debate, however, was his remark that “Racism does not exist in Denmark.”  I was more inclined to believe that homosexuality does not exist in Iran!  I recently started volunteering at the DRC, an organization that documents racial discrimination claims in Denmark.  Part of my job is to summarize court cases based on discrimination – which is illegal in Denmark.  Interestingly, the DF representative at the debate had been arrested previously for racism.  It’s funny that he should say something doesn’t exist when he himself is guilty of it.

During a debrief of the debate in class on Monday, my professor also said that he doesn’t think racism exists in Denmark.  My hand shot up and I explained a case that I had read at work in which a man was called an “Arab pig” by his employer.  My professor said that this is probably based on prejudice against Islam as a religion, not race – but I think it’s important to remember that not all Arabs are Muslims, and certainly not all Muslims are Arabs.

Denmark is in many ways much more tolerant and much more equal than the United States.  I prefer life here to life in the States, without a doubt.  But denying one of the fundamental problems of Danish society does a disservice to this country and to its people.

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