Saklaus húmor eða ódulbúinn rasismi?

Mynd Sigmunds af þeim Obama og Hillary hefur vakið nokkra athygli hér vestra og ég ákvað að taka þátt í umræðunni á þessum spjallvef: http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/05/16/icelandic-obamahillary-ad-obama-as-savage-cannibal/

Nenni ekki að þýða þetta innlegg mitt en ákvað að skella því hérna inn samt sem áður.

"Sadly, racism and nationalism has always thrived in Iceland.  Don't be fooled by the fake "cute and cuddly" image Iceland has enjoyed in recent years in the media.  Sure, if you grow up there, like I did, as a part of the homogenous (inbred) blond, blue eyed population, you don't notice a thing.  Heck, I literally didn't even see a colored person in my town until I was a teenager, and then everyone just kinda stared at him!  It's easy for people to say that racism doesn't exist, when there are no colored people around!  In a way I guess that's a valid excuse of sorts... Icelanders don't see anything wrong with racist jokes and remarks because they live in a society that has never had to deal with the impacts of racial tensions and injustice.  Icelanders have absolutely no sense of what African-Americans have had to endure in the U.S. and know next to nothing about their struggle for social equality.  I admit, I myself had no idea about the true meaning of racism until I moved to the U.S. to go to college and witnessed it first hand.

This cartoon may not be such a serious evidence of racism in Iceland, but to my fellow countrymen who try to deny that racism exists in Iceland, I ask them to take a look back on history.  Going back to WWII, Iceland's many aryan Hitler sympathizers in the government turned back Jewish refugees and sent them to their death in Germany.  During the cold war, an American airbase was located in Iceland and as a part of the deal, it was explicitly written that NO COLORED PEOPLE would be allowed to serve at the Keflavik airbase and under no circumstances allowed to leave the base to mingle with the locals (I believe this agreement was in effect until the late 70's/early 80's). 

Even today many Icelanders, including members of parliament, are opposed to allowing temporary foreign workers to enter the country and Iceland's immigration laws are already some of the toughest in the world.  It is almost impossible for anyone outside of the European Union to get permanent residency in Iceland. 

Just this week, a backwards town in western Iceland, population ca. 6000 is up in arms due to a decision to invite 30 Red Cross refugees from Iraq (all single moms and their children who have lived in camps in Palestine for years) to move to the town.  Claiming it would be an "unfair burden on the town's welfare system" (Remember Iceland is still one of the richest countries in the world).  The asshole responsible for the "uproar" and who has started to collect signatures from the townspeople to reject the refugees is a former member of parliament and is currently a  member of the township council.  His political party is moving ever closer to blatant national extremism and one of their slogans has been "Iceland for Icelanders".

The truth is that way too many Icelanders really suffer from their continous isolation and inbreeding on this tiny and insignificant island full of insecure megalomaniacs suffering from low self esteem.

Oh I almost forgot to mention the Anti-Americanism that is so pervasive up there... while most Icelanders suck up American culture through their flatscreen tv's and their favorite resturants are McDonalds and KFC, these pathetic hippocrites never cease to curse America and all that it stands for.  Americans are in their view fat, ignorant clowns who are the root of all evil in the world...and yet these same Icelanders can't get enough of watching American Idol and flying once a year to Minneapolis to do their Christmas shopping at Mall of America!!!  Maybe it's jealousy or just their low self esteem disguised as misguided feelings of superiority? 

Seriously, I've had friends and relatives sneer at my decision to go to school in America...some have even concluded that I must be a keen admirer of George Bush and his regime (I'm an Obama supporter btw) and I've even had potential employers in Iceland tell me to my face that an American education was not held in particularly high regard in Iceland and that I'd be better off getting my degree in Europe at a "serious institution"!!!

As an Icelandic expatriot, living in the US for the past 8 years, I will be hard pressed to ever move back there...heh, especially after they read this...I'd probably be tarred and feathered at the airport!" 

Myndasaga Sigmunds gagnrýnd