In Denmark we have state racism

Acceptance speech by Jonas Eika, upon receiving the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2019:

“I stand here full of gratitude and humility towards those with whom I share my life, those who inspire me, those with whom I think, those with whom I engage in politics and literature, those with whom I engage in radical struggle. The book being awarded here also owes its existence to them. Because of people who do not use their powers to serve the prevailing order, or accept well-paid positions within it, because they believe and hope for a different kind of order. A culture not characterized by patriarchal power relations, but by solidarity that does not require racist exclusion, a classless society without power where the forces of creation and love do not serve the state and the death machine of capitalism, but serve all of us and life, in all its forms, human as well as non-human.

I believe that in literature there is a dream of a language whose meaning does not require oblivion.

A language that stands on equal footing with the world, in all its oppression and despair, but is at the same time open to the ineffable, the unforeseen, which can be found everywhere, and from which a new order can emerge.

The work of the Nordic Council in translating and promoting books from both large and small language communities may contribute. But let us not forget that the Nordic Council is also an institution, part of the cooperation of some of the richest nations in the world.

I believe that the racist nationalism, which primarily rests on anti-Muslim hatred, that is unfolding in modern Nordic states, is based on whiteness, on the idea of the undisputed right of the white majority to welfare and security. And I see whiteness as the legacy of past colonialism, which also threads its way through the North, and which none of the states most responsible there have shown any willingness to confront.

On the contrary. Many of them would rather exploit it.

I speak to the Prime Minister of Denmark (who is sitting here in the hall).

Mette Frederiksen, who is the leader of the Social Democrats, and came to power by adopting the racist rhetoric and politics of her predecessors and making it her own.

Mette Frederiksen, who calls herself the children's prime minister, but is responsible for an immigration policy that divides families, impoverishes them, and condemns both children and adults to degrading stays in the country's so-called “Udrejsecenter”. Let's close Sjælsmark, close Kærshovedgård, close Ellebæk, abolish this entire system.

Mette Frederiksen, a Social Democrat, who claims to fight for welfare and affordable housing but implements massive attacks on social housing. Mette Frederiksen and Social Democrats who say that „In Denmark everyone is equal“ but then advocate for ghetto laws that directly discriminate against citizens based on class and status. In Denmark, racism is both cultural and legal, in Denmark we have state racism.

But I also speak to the other Nordic ministers.

In your countries, asylum seekers and refugees are also imprisoned. And there they are also broken down, become ill, some take their own lives. In all your countries, people are deported to highly dangerous places, or where they have no future.

And your countries are involved in financing the militarization of the European Union's borders, a process that costs thousands of refugees their lives, but is at the same time good business for security and arms companies, including many Nordic companies.

But first and foremost, I speak to everyone and those who want something different.

No matter how privileged we are, or oppressed by this society – and many of us are both – we share the fact that we did not choose this. None of us chose to live in an oppressive society. It therefore has no claim on our loyalty. But it does, however, demand something of us to break away from it.

Especially in situations where it concerns those of us who live with privilege, it demands an awareness of the oppression and struggle, which years of neoliberal and nationalist politics have tried to make us blind and indifferent to. If we have extra resources or other means at our disposal, it demands that we use them in the name of solidarity.

And for all of us, I believe, it demands that we tear down the delimited and homogeneous self that the state and capital have made us into, and learn to work together anew, across and by virtue of our differences. It demands that we find each other.”

Jóhann Helgi Heiðdal translated