Blacklisted
PERSPECTIVE
|
|
|
By Teppo Moisio
As a teenager I listened to heavy metal. I had long hair, dyed black, and Lord knows what dangling from my pierced ears. I dressed in a black leather coat and wore black Doc Martens boots. I thought it was cool.
Other people took a different view of my dress-code: for them it was not so cool.
The police seemed to be keeping me under observation in public places. Small children pointed at me in supermarkets and asked their parents strange questions. On quiet evenings, someone walking the other way might cross the street in order to avoid encountering me.
I realised that I was being associated with stories of Satan-worshippers, junkies who nicked car radios, and biker-gang members.
In my last year of upper secondary school, my heavy-metal phase came to an end. I got my hair cut and swapped the black leather look for a colourful pullover. I became a student lad, lost in the mass, invisible.
At the same moment when my pony-tail vanished from my neck, the weight of the accusing glances was lifted from my shoulders. On sunny days, the beat policeman on the street might even flash me a smile.
Listening to the experiences of the Somali youths brings back memories of my own "man in black" days.
Well-behaved Somali boys are obliged to withstand the accusing glares, and even taunts and violence. The police are not slow to check their ID papers, as their descriptions seem to match those of "dark-skinned robbers of medium height and build".
The lion's share of the heavy metal fans in black and of the people of Somali background are pleasant, law-abiding folks who should not be labelled. The difference is that heavy devotees can "shed their skin", swapping their leathers for an inoffensive officewear jacket, if and when the stupid prejudices of those around them become frustrating.
People who are black by birth cannot manage this transformation. I do not envy them.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 2.10.2005
The author is a journalist on the Helsingin Sanomat Metro desk.
More on this subject:
 Helsinki youth with Somali backgrounds tired of constant suspicion
TEPPO MOISIO / Helsingin Sanomat
teppo.moisio@hs.fi
|
|
