The case in summary Several are advocating to stop using the term “everyday racism”. They believe the term exonerates the act. Leader of the youth county council in Troms, Parahini Parabaran and Frode Følstad, are among those who want the word out. Storting politician Kamzy Gunaratnam believes that racism in Norway is partly systematic. She wants the word everyday racism to be retired. Linguist Hilde Sollid says the word can have its purpose. Namely, to uncover and oppose the racism that can go under the radar. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. We don’t use words like party racism or holiday racism. So why do we use the word everyday racism? Several are now advocating that we should drop the use of the term. – I think everyday racism is a degrading word. We should use the language for what it is, namely racism, says Parahini Parabaran. The 19-year-old leads the youth county council in Troms and is from Karlsøy municipality. Last week she stood up and took a stand against prejudice against people from minority backgrounds. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe So did Frode Følstad. In 2021, he reported a man for hate speech after an episode at the Jekta shopping center in Tromsø. The man was later given a summons for the incident. – I think it’s a wasted word. If your children are bullied, it is not everyday bullying. We are not talking about everyday abuse either, he says. Frode Følstad experienced little racism growing up in Vadsø, even though there were few who looked like him there. Photo: Ingvild VikNRK – It hurts Parabaran and Følstad get support from a parliamentary politician from Oslo, Kamzy Gunaratnam. She believes that racism in Norway is partly systematic, and that the word everyday racism should be retired. – I don’t know how to define everyday racism. And why don’t we have everyday metoo, everyday harassment or everyday homophobia? I think it is difficult to measure everyday racism, she says. Kamzy Gunaratnam is a parliamentary politician from Oslo. She wants the word everyday racism to die. Photo: Frode Fjerdingstad / news Both she and Parabaran have family from Sri Lanka. They have lived in Norway all their lives. Both have experienced harassment and racism on the basis of their skin colour. The 19-year-old says that her father was shouted at last week when he was walking in the street. She believes it is pure racism and not everyday racism he experienced when he was called “damn pack ice”. – It hurts terribly. You can criticize me for my opinions and my clothes, or my political views. But being criticized for something I cannot change is difficult, says Parabaran. – It’s really unfair that we have to go back to the time when ethnicity had something to say. Karlsøyværing residents Parahini Parabaran (19) and Parabaran Rajalingam (49) are tired of the prejudice they face as a result of their Tamil background. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe Tools against racism A comment here, a look there. Maybe you won’t be called in for a job interview. Maybe there is someone who obviously avoids you on the street. These are examples that have been referred to as everyday racism. It’s often the subtle things that are hard to pinpoint happening. Do you think the term “everyday racism” must go away? Storting politician Gunaratnam says that she feels that talking about everyday racism can be a way of normalizing discriminatory actions. – I have difficulty understanding what everyday racism is. But in the fight against racism, we need significantly more tools. Those tools start with us having a language that we all agree on what it means, she says. She says that it is needed when racist attitudes are to be cracked down on. – That way we can address exactly what is happening around us. We can also have a common perception of reality. Does the word exonerate the act Linguist at UiT – Norway’s Arctic University, Hilde Sollid, says that researchers have had a need to distinguish between systematic and cultural racism, and actions that can go under the radar. This is how the word everyday racism arose. – But there is no doubt that the term is about racism. By having the term “everyday” at the front, we may be able to convey something important. Namely the attitudes and actions that we in the majority population see as so normal that we hardly notice them. Hilde Sollid is professor of Nordic linguistics at UiT. Photo: Petter Strøm / news Sollid emphasizes that she herself has not researched racism and discrimination. She says it is difficult to be firm for or against the word everyday racism. – I can well understand that some people perceive that the word mundanes the action itself, and that we therefore do not need to do anything. But because it is racism, unearthing what goes under the radar is exactly what we need to do and counter. Gunaratnam sees no reason to find an alternative term if everyday racism is removed from everyday speech. – Racism is racism. Discrimination is discrimination, she says. Frode Følstad wants to scrap the word everyday racism. Photo: Ingvild Vik/news Frode Følstad agrees. – The concept of everyday racism exonerates the act. This means that one does not take the action seriously enough. Because that is racism, he believes. Weekend morning Sunday 25 February.
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Want the word for life – news Troms and Finnmark
