I was born in Denmark, Scandinavia, but moved to the US 10 years ago. Lately I've been following the European refugee crisis in the media. I found myself appalled by the fact that my old country's government put adds in Syrian newspapers, intended to tell victims of war to stay away from Denmark. To find some other place to sponge on. That inspired me to write a song. A song about empathy and compassion: about opening your heart to your fellow human beings. I didn't intend the song to be an attack on any particular groups; especially not my old country, that I love dearly, but rather a political comment. After a few days, and a couple thousand plays on Facebook, I decided to contact Danish media, admittedly, to promote the song and it's message. I wrote a substantial comment, encouraging what I believe to be a collective responsibility to stop the war in Syria. If 10 million exiled people (of a 20 million population) isn't a red flag for the international community (UN), then what is? A few days before writing this comment I had become an American citizen, and I used that experience as an example of a positive way of welcoming people to a new country.
Lo and behold, the story was picked up by the infamous, Danish tabloid newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, who chose the following headline: “Emma changes citizenship: Embarrassed by Danish refugee-policy”. Then things became interesting. More than 600 people commented on the article. I started reading these comments, but soon realized that 99% consisted of personal attacks, hatred, if you will, directed against me. I saw no reason to indulge in further self-torture. However, someone offered to read through the comments and categorize them in themes. Here are the results:
Stupid/naive blonde/cow/etc. (insert bleep) 100 49%
USA is a racist country. 60 29%
Glad you went/don't come back. 52 25%
Islam/muslims suck/are lazy/criminals/rapists. 42 24%
She probably has dual citizenship/she's lying about the citizenship. 18 9%
Denmark is a racist country/has image problems. 16 8%
She's right. 3 1%
I don't normally consider myself touchy, emotional or “highly sensitive”, but reviewing the statistics I was shocked to learn that nearly half the 600+ commentators described me as naive, stupid, a whore, a bimbo or worse. It is, however, interesting that 29% of the commentators wrote that: Who are you to judge? The US is far worse than Denmark when it comes to racism.
In my book, this is the sort of argument I would expect from kids. Young kids. “But he does it all the time. Why can't I do it?” (insert whining, red face). It should, however, be mentioned, that some of these comments didn't see racism as a bad thing, just as a way of saying: “Look, the Americans are racists, just as we are. It's perfectly normal”.
This lead to another topic in the “debate”: Islam. I didn't mention neither Islam nor Muslims in the article. Nonetheless, 21% found my call for compassion as leading naturally to the topic of Muslims: A lazy, degenerate, criminal, rapist pestilence, - however they manage to fulfill all these purposes at once. I'm no fan of fundamentalism in any shape, but it should be clear to most people, that this is simply nonsense. Yet for some reason it's not. The same “one-case-study”-logic was used all around to conclude that all Muslims are rapists and that all Americans are racists, because e.g. a (as in: numerical value 1) cop shot a black man in a wheelchair. Call me naive (please, continue to do so) but I doubt this reflects the ideal of “critical thinking” that is so widely praised concept these days.
Some of the commentators who acknowledged an increase in Danish racism, wrote things like: “But in the US the immigrants are profitable. In Europe they' don't wanna work. They are a burden.”. Even if this was true: is this what human beings are reduced to? Means of production? Tools? A needed boost to economy? I'm not saying that shouldn't be considered, but to view human beings fleeing from war exclusively as resources of potential financial gain hardly seems ethical, no matter what ideology you subscribe to.
The YouTube version of the song had comments in Danish as well as English. Here's a little potpourri: “Traitors WILL BE HANGED”, “Stupid slut”, “Stay away, though I would prefer that you shot yourself”, and “What a dumb, unintelligent race traitor”. One thing is disagreeing with the expressed opinion, another thing is posing not so subtle death threats and nazi-comments.
The article has been shared more than 6.000 times on Facebook, which is quite impressive, considering Denmark's mere 5.5 million citizens. However, I couldn't help asking the question: Did all these people share the article to promote further hatred?
I wrote a song about empathy and compassion. The response was hatred. Almost exclusively. I assume some people liked the song and it's message, but for some reason they didn't feel the need to express themselves as clearly as their counterparts. Maybe this is symptomatic for the age we live in? Why do haters shout so much louder than lovers? Add to this the pictures of a Danish man standing on a bridge spitting from his vantage point at newly arrived refugees:
http://www.bt.dk/danmark/mand-spyttede-paa-flygtninge-og-bad-dem-skride-hjem-det-er-ynkelig-opfoersel
If I wasn't worried about the direction we (as a global community) are headed, I am now.
Maybe I am naive.
I suppose I am.
A naive, blonde, Danish girl from a poor background, but in a privileged country.
But does that really take away my right to dream of a better world for all of us?
Is empathy really such a radical opinion?
