White Apologies – Apologies for Racism as Expressions and Enactments of Whiteness in Finland

In this thesis three apologies for racism, which have taken place in the Finnish cultural field between 2019 and 2021, are analysed from a critical whiteness perspective. Apologies for racism and the following media discourse are seen as meaningful sources to analyse how whiteness is expressed and enacted in Finland. The data is collected from public Finnish media sources, and is analysed through critical discourse analysis. Whiteness is seen as a global power structure that normalises and privileges white people, while marginalizing and excluding non-white people. This thesis argues that whiteness in Finnish apologies for racism, is expressed and enacted through for an example, white melancholia, white innocence, white entitlement and white supremacy. When discussing racism in the Finnish cultural field, white supremacy is enacted by displacing the conversation, through discourse on intentionality, freedom of artistic expression and racism as a lower-class phenomenon.