ESPOO MAGAZINE 2/2020

Human
dignity is for
everyone
It is only natural to have
prejudices about people
who are different. However,
there is a difference between
thinking and saying things
out loud. Sometimes prejudices
can lead to another
person’s fundamental rights
being violated.
› We are meeting Hanna Bäckström
and Paula Åkerlund by virtual
means because of the current exceptional
circumstances. Because of this,
it was easy for all of us to come to the
meeting. That is not always the case.
Bäckström is in a wheelchair, and
sometimes she quite literally faces a
high threshold for attending events.
“In many cases, when I arrive at
an event, it’s taken so much time and
trouble to get there that I can’t be
bothered with how confused people
get when I arrive in a wheelchair,” says
Bäckström.
Paula Åkerlund, a Roma woman,
can identify with the experience. She
also often encounters open resentment
and discriminatory behaviour.
“It’s humiliating to walk around
in a shop with a security guard trailing
behind you. I can’t accept anyone
making automatic judgments like that
about another person.”
Åkerlund is active in advocating for
minorities. She used to be a member
of the Espoo Multicultural Advisory
Board and is now in her first term as
minority representative on the Espoo
Equality Committee. Bäckström,
following in her father’s footsteps,
represents Uudenmaan lihastautiyhdistys
[Muscle Disease Association
of Uusimaa] on the Espoo Disability
Council.
Through their respective
municipal bodies, Paula
Åkerlund and Hanna Bäckström
are involved in the ‘Espoo for
Everyone – Stop Hate Speech!’
campaign, the purpose of which
is to raise awareness, to foster
an atmosphere of tolerance
and to encourage everyone to
intervene in harassment and
hate speech.
With the honour of representation
comes great responsibility.
Sometimes it is not so easy to be humble,
friendly and kind.
“Sometimes I’d like to be able to
be bad-tempered and rude without
having the entire disabled community
judged by my conduct,” says
Bäckström.
Åkerlund admits that she has a
very short fuse in situations where
she feels she is being mistreated. If
she has had a rough day, she may lash
out at someone more fiercely than she
intended.
“And then they say ‘you people are
always like that’,” says Åkerlund.
Everyone has prejudices. When
Hanna Bäckström catches herself
thinking in a prejudiced way, she
laughs at herself.
“Stereotypes about population
groups are incredibly powerful. I’m a
slave to them just as much as the next
person. When you catch yourself having
thoughts like that, you just have to
grab yourself by the neck,” she says.
Paula Åkerlund stresses that
no one is saying you cannot have
thoughts and opinions of your own.
The point is in how you express them.
“You don’t always have to take up the
pitchforks and torches even if you don’t
approve of a particular operating culture
or way of thinking. Every human
being is entitled to human dignity, no
matter what they are like. We all have to
respect that,” Åkerlund insists.
encounters
Espoo is a multicultural
city with a policy of promoting
acceptance and
cooperation between
population groups.
Text Tiina Parikka Photo Timo Porthan
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