Swedish Minister Lena Liljeroth in racist caricature row

First it was Pepe Reina in the jungle ridiculing Black people in a despicable sexualised ad that echoed the crude racial stereotyping of the 1950’s.

Now it’s a Swedish Minister's turn - Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth who along with a well known artist put together a stunt involving a grotesque caricature of a naked pregnant Black woman. The Minister – a self proclaimed anti-racist - scoops the flesh of the Black woman’s stomach which happens to be a cake.

Black groups in Sweden have called for her resignation. A spokesman for the association, Kitimbwa Sabuni, stated that

In our view, this simply adds to the mockery of racism in Sweden

adding,

a cake party that meant to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation had not achieved its aim. Instead, the cake was just a racist caricature of a black woman. The Minister took part in a dubious event with cannibalistic overtones showed her incompetence and lack of judgment.

We also have to remember that these these stunts don’t just happen spontaneously. Like the Spanish Insurance ad with Pepe Reina there must have been a lot of elaborate preparation.

It is deeply worrying that no one in Spanish or Swedish circles who put together the ad and stunt highlighted there was something profoundly wrong. The general acceptances of grotesque and racist stereotypes speaks volumes about a society’s lack of understanding about how racism works.

Simon Woolley