When Helsinki Regional Transport Authority’s anti-fraud campaign featured two Black men, it sparked a nationwide debate on representation, inclusion, and racial stereotypes. What does this response reveal about Finnish society and racial dynamics?
In August 2023, Helsinki Regional Transport (HSL) launched an anti-fraud campaign featuring social media personalities Iba and Keinaan, who were chosen to promote the risks of using fake transit tickets. However, the campaign sparked significant controversy and public debate, as critics argued, that using two Black men in this context risked reinforcing negative stereotypes around race and criminality.
While some defended the campaign as a step toward greater visibility for underrepresented groups and dismissed the criticisms as overblown “woke” reactions that had turned an innocuous issue into another topic for the culture wars, others saw it as racially insensitive. In response, HSL initially pulled the campaign but later reinstated it. The transport authority believed that clarifying Iba and Keinaan’s roles as influencers would address the backlash and emphasize the campaign’s intent.
The controversy, though, revealed deeper issues with representation of minorities in Finnish society, institutional responsibility, and the social consequences of public messaging choices. Social media platforms became a major space for discussion, with people from various backgrounds sharing their concerns about the campaign. Many argued that HSL should have anticipated backlash, as a quick scan of HSL’s Facebook and Instagram pages shows few — if any — Black individuals in past positive messaging campaigns.
Finnish audiences are generally not accustomed to seeing Black individuals represented in HSL’s campaigns, which makes this casting choice a noticeable departure from its not-so-strong track record of diversity. The choice of lesser-known personalities over more recognizable Black influencers active in Finland, likely to save costs for HSL, added to the controversy, as most people saw Iba and Keinaan as mere campaign models.
Iba and Keinaan themselves expressed disappointment after the initial removal of the campaign from digital screens. In an interview with Iltalehti, they explained that they found it unfair for those outside the minority community to speak on their behalf, adding that, regardless of their involvement, they felt open to public scrutiny either way.
The Specter and Spectacle of Race
The real question is not about branding the campaign as racist or not; it is more about unpacking the sociopolitical implications and understanding the context from which it emerged. It is no coincidence that two Black individuals were chosen for an anti-fraud campaign in the Finnish context.
Unlike Sweden’s social-democratic roots, Finnish welfare policy has historically leaned toward protectionist and nationalistic orientations. In his doctoral dissertation, university researcher Niko Pyrhönen explains how a widely shared concern across the Finnish political spectrum about the welfare state’s future in a globalized era enabled neo-populists, such as the Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party), to frame immigration as a threat to welfare structures. Far-right political ideologies constructed a collective identity centered around “welfare nationalism”.
This so-called “blue-and-white solidarity” has crafted an exclusionary narrative that positions native Finns as the “real” beneficiaries of the welfare state, while casting “racial aliens” (a term used by the far-right in Finland for African and MENA immigrants) as outsiders from whom the welfare state must be “saved”. In other words, “the other” is located as both “traumatic” and “excessive”.
The real question is not about branding the campaign as racist or not; it is more about unpacking the sociopolitical implications and understanding the context from which it emerged.
This image of immigrants and their relationship with welfare structures has permeated mainstream Finnish discourse, surfacing almost daily in the public sphere. Immigrants are often accused of clogging public health service lines or are labeled “sossupummi” (a derogatory term for a perceived welfare client) on social media. To better understand this, we can turn to university Professor Li-Chun Hsiao’s distinction between the “specter” and “spectacle” of race. The “specter” of race refers to pervasive, often unspoken racial anxieties or biases that linger beneath society’s surface.
In contrast, the “spectacle” of race is race made visible and performative, often through exaggerated or symbolic representations in media and public campaigns. According to Hsiao, every spectacle is shadowed and haunted by the specter of race. In this context, the “spectacle” of two Black individuals featured in a campaign aimed at “saving” welfare structures from fraud reflects the deeper “specter” of race in the contemporary Finnish context.
“They themselves accepted it, so it’s fine!”
A common cliché used to dismiss controversies like this is the argument, “they accepted it, so it’s fine”. This flawed—and ideologically skewed! —understanding of agency deliberately ignores the power dynamics at play, shifting focus away from broader structural issues and reducing a systemic problem to individual preference. In this case, it refers to Iba and Keinaan’s interview comments about not perceiving the campaign as racist. This reasoning is as problematic as suggesting Donald Trump is not a racist politician because some Muslim leaders and Imams in Michigan endorsed him, or insisting Non-Black people must shut up about slavery because one of the largest slave-owners in U.S. history, John Carruthers Stanly, was Black.
This argument rests on the notion that participation by individuals from marginalized backgrounds inherently validates those structures as non-discriminatory or fair. Such thinking fails to consider the complex survival strategies, constrained choices, and internalized norms marginalized groups have to deal with within systems that remain biased.
Another naive argument often thrown around in cases like this is, “What problem do you have with the representation and inclusion of Black individuals in the public sphere?” Although this rather common question builds on the dynamics discussed in the previous paragraph and reduces the complexities of inclusion to a binary of presence versus absence, it deserves attention because it reflects a prevailing issue between symbolic representation and genuine inclusion—a challenge faced by many Western societies today.
Not every representation is a sign of inclusion, and we must be cautious when inclusion is tokenized and used as a shield against criticism.
To be more clear, I will provide an example. Indigenous culture is often celebrated through traditional clothing, dance, or festivals, which are romanticized and consumed by the majority for aesthetic value. Yet, when Indigenous groups advocate for land rights, resist environmental degradation, or oppose corporate interests, they often face hostility, which reveals the limits of the “love” that exists only for aesthetic or symbolic purposes. The same holds true for celebrating black individuals in roles such as athletes, musicians, or entertainers, and Asian Americans as hardworking and non-confrontational.
Here, we see a phenomenon where members of marginalized or racialized groups are selectively embraced or celebrated when they conform to certain roles, behaviors, or stereotypes that are beneficial or non-threatening to the dominant group. To explain this phenomenon, American authors Frank Chin and Jeffrey Paul Chan coined the term “racist love” in 1972. In essence, racist love is a conditional love that creates an illusion of acceptance or inclusion as long as marginalized groups conform to stereotypes or roles that align with the dominant group’s expectations or interests. Therefore, not every representation is a sign of inclusion, and we must be cautious when inclusion is tokenized and used as a shield against criticism.
The Path to Authentic Inclusion
Reflecting on the controversy surrounding this campaign, one thing becomes clear: representation is a complex, layered issue, especially when it intersects with race and public messaging. The lingering influence of welfare nationalism, which emerged starkly in Finland’s recent general elections, and Finland’s repeated selection as the “happiest country in the world” should not lead to a fetishization of Finnish public institutions and services, stripping them of accountability and closing off avenues for public critique.
Rather than focusing solely on whether this campaign was “right” or “wrong” this incident points to the need for deeper discussions around inclusion and the responsibilities of public institutions in shaping public perceptions.
Rather than focusing solely on whether this campaign was “right” or “wrong” this incident points to the need for deeper discussions around inclusion and the responsibilities of public institutions in shaping public perceptions.
As political polarization is ravaging liberal democracies, it is becoming increasingly challenging to speak about racism and the different brands it comes in. As British journalist and author Reni Eddo-Lodge explains in her influential piece titled Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Euro-ethnic populations historically never had to think about what it means, in power terms, to be white, so the majority believe that their life experiences, shaped by skin color, can and should be universalized.
This has turned racial discussions into a burden for people of color, as they are expected to educate others on the subject and prioritize white feelings in understanding structural racism. This is why we need a dialectical reversal in understanding racism and, for a first step, must challenge the neoliberal idea of diversity and multiculturalism, which is based on the commandment of thou shalt tolerate the other yet keep thy distance from ‘em…! The path forward is not arm’s-length tolerance and tokenism but understanding the otherness of the other.
Erfan Fatehi is a doctoral researcher in sociology at the University of Helsinki.
Article image: Jori Samonen / Pixabay
