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Feltarbeid avslørte: Politimenn betegner innvandrere som aper

Published on June 7, 2007 by lorenz Posted in aktivisme og protest, kommune stat forvaltning, sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark, vi og de andre

“Hvis man dumpede ned i baglokalet uden at kende betjentene, ville jeg nok tænke: Hold da op nogle racister. For der er en ret hård tone,” sier antropolog Louise Mejnertz som har vært på feltarbeid i politiet i Århus-forstaden Gellerup. Innvandrere blir nemlig blant annet betegnet som “aper”, melder Nyhedsavisen. “Betjentne er flasket op med det. Forskning tyder på, at der generelt er en hård tone hos politiet, når det gælder indvandrere,” sier hun.

Hun mener at denne sjargongen er en inngrodd del av kaffepausen og stasjonshumoren. Tonen gir en følelse af fellesskap, den fungerer også som ventil for betjentenes frustrasjoner, mener Mejnertz:

»Det er hårdt arbejde ude i Gellerup, og de møder mange, der har det skidt. I stedet for at lade det hele gå ind i hjertet, distancerer de sig fra det og får luft på den måde. Det er ikke kun hos politiet, det sker. Man oplever også læger, der joker om en dødssyg lungepatient for at distancere sig.«

Antropologen vil derfor ikke betegne politimennene som rasister.

De er ikke onde eller racister. Men jeg finder det problematisk, at de ikke bruger deres egne postitve erfaringer med indvandrere til at nedbryde de fordomme, der er blandt betjentene på Politigården. Men de har ikke lyst til at blive stemplet som hellige.

>> les hele saken i Nyhedsavisen

Det har vært lenge kjent at politiet har et problem med innvandrere og dels rasistiske holdninger. Nyeste eksempel er Obiora-saken. Kriminolog Ragnhild Sollund har studert politiets forhold til etniske minoriteter og påpekte problemene i kronikken De ser like ut for meg. Se også teksten Konflikt på gadeplan – når etnisk minoritetsungdom og politi mødes av Anthony Ansel-Henry (sosiolog) og Susanne Branner Jespersen (antropolog).

Samtidig må vi ikke glemme at politiet også har problemer med andre grupper: ungdommer og politiske aktivister som vi bl.a. ser under G8-møtet.

OPPDATERING
Noen medier har åpenbart misforstått Mejnertz’ forskning. “Der er netop ikke tale om racisme, påpeker hun i Jyllands-Posten.
Både politiledelsen og Multikulturel Forening har reagert på politimennenes språkbruk, skriver aarhus.dk

"Hvis man dumpede ned i baglokalet uden at kende betjentene, ville jeg nok tænke: Hold da op nogle racister. For der er en ret hård tone," sier antropolog Louise Mejnertz som har vært på feltarbeid i politiet i Århus-forstaden Gellerup.…

Anthropological perspectives on suicide bombing

Published on June 6, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, persons and theories, politics, religion cosmology, Us and Them

“On Suicide Bombing” is the title of a new book by anthropologist Talal Asad. In the introduction he writes:

For many non-Muslims in the United States, Western Europe, and Israel, the suicide bomber quickly became the icon of an Islamic “culture of death.” This led me to try to think in a sustained way about the contemporary mode of violence that is described by much of the Western media as “Islamic terrorism.” Is there, I asked myself, a religiously motivated terrorism? If so, how does it differ from other cruelties? What makes its motivation—as opposed to the simple intent to kill—religious? Where does it stand in relation to other forms of collective violence? How is the image of the suicide bomber, bringing death to himself and others, addressed by Christians and post-Christians?

He also examins the “clash of civilizations” thesis that purports to explain contemporary Islamic jihadism as the essence of contemporary terrorism, and he argue against the kind of history that assumes self-contained civilizations having fixed values. Asad also discusses state terrorism and violence exercised by the modern state:

I am simply impressed by the fact that modern states are able to destroy and disrupt life more easily and on a much grander scale than ever before and that terrorists cannot reach this capability. I am also struck by the ingenuity with which so many politicians, public intellectuals, and journalists provide moral justifications for killing and demeaning other human beings. What seems to matter is not the killing and dehumanization as such but how one kills and with what motive. People at all times have, of course, justified the killing of so-called enemies and others they deem not deserving to live. The only difference is that today liberals who engage in this justification think they are different because morally advanced.

>> read the whole introduction

By the way, Paradise Now is a great film about suicide bombers.

There are several articles by or about Talal Asad online, among others:

Interview with Talal Asad (Asia Source, 16.12.02)

Interview with Talal Asad: Modern power and the reconfiguration of religious traditions (Stanford University)

Talal Asad: A single history? Francis Fukuyama’s defence of the universalism of western values and institutions is challenged by modern global political realities (Open Democracy, 5.5.06)

Talal Asad: Reflections on Laïcité & the Public Sphere (Keynote address at the “Beirut Conference on Public Spheres,” October 22-24, 2004)

Talal Asad’s hour-long Stanford Presidential Lecture

"On Suicide Bombing" is the title of a new book by anthropologist Talal Asad. In the introduction he writes:

For many non-Muslims in the United States, Western Europe, and Israel, the suicide bomber quickly became the icon of an Islamic “culture…

Kritiserer norsk paternalisme overfor muslimer

Published on June 6, 2007 by lorenz Posted in innvandring migrasjon, islam, media, sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark, vi og de andre

Dagens paternalistiske integreringspolitikk, der majoriteten insisterer at de vet hva som er best for muslimer, kan ikke skape et likestilt samfunn. Tvert i mot vil norske muslimer føle seg som annenrangs borgere. Hvis folk derimot får anerkjennelse og respekt, kan de føle seg trygge og lettere kritisere egen ’kultur’, skriver antropolog Christian Stokke i en god kommentar i Utrop, der han bl.a. diskuterer medias dening av Kadra-saken:

Media gjorde Kadra til heltinne, demoniserte imamene, stigmatiserte somaliere, tvang Islamsk Råd-leder Kebba Secka til å gå av, og ødela for somaliske kvinners daglige arbeid mot omskjæring, som ble mistenkeliggjort i egne miljøer

>> les teksten i Utrop

SE OGSÅ:

Flere tekster av Christian Stokke, bl.a. Norsk paternalisme overfor muslimer

Kadra, æresdrap og nasjonsbygging

Hvorfor elsker norske journalister Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

Going native – part of the darker arts of fieldworkers’ repertoir?

Published on June 6, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods

Anthropologist Cicilie Fagerlid is studying poetry slam in Paris and has become one of them she is studying as we see in the

. She seems to be in quite an intensive period of fieldwork and is wondering: Is “going native” part of the darker arts of fieldworkers’ repertoir?

She writes:

Both my fieldworks have been in environments close to my own interests. I could have been – and I surely would have loved to be – hanging around with policial activists in Brixton and mucisians in Tower Hamlets as well as slammeurs and slammeuses in Belleville, even without the excuse of doing fieldwork. Partly, I see this as a more honest anthropology as it is entirely based on the idea of an anthropology without radical difference, and more so, I don’t have to fake or hide anything – not what kind of information I’m looking for, neither my political views, my artistic interests and my way of life in any sense. On the other hand, as I’ve found myself asking the last week; what if I’m faking it all (so well that I believe it myself!), getting access through this perhaps naïve enthusiasm.

>> read the whole article in her blog

Fieldblogging from Nicaragua – reading anthropology is something totally different than DOING anthropology.

Paper by Erkan Saka: Blogging as a Research Tool for Ethnographic Fieldwork

Doing Fieldwork Among Poets and Rebels in Paris – Interview with Cicilie Fagerlid

Anthropologist Cicilie Fagerlid is studying poetry slam in Paris and has become one of them she is studying as we see in the video of herself - the anthropologist as slammeuse. She seems to be in quite an intensive period…

Six reasons for bad academic writing

Published on June 6, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, journal articles / papers, language, University / Academia

Sociologist Lars Laird Eriksen has written an interesting blog post about why academic texts often are so badly written. When academics try to write, it often becomes so full of jargon and it’s a turture for the reader. So why is this so?

Here’s his list:

1st reason for difficult language: Trying to sneak yourself to academic status.

2nd reason for difficult language: Not knowing exactly what you’re saying and hiding behind grand words.

3rd reason for difficult language: Being on a learning curve – still searching for the right words and images to convey your thoughts clearly. (The nice version of the 2nd reason…)

4th reason for difficult language: Common sense language is not specific enough.

5th reason for difficult language: Common sense language is too politicized.

6th reason for difficult language: Common sense language is what is being analysed.

Number 3 is the interesting one in his opinion:

It conveys to me that when an idea is better understood, it can be expressed more simply. This also explains why cutting-edge research often is difficult to read: No-one has thought these thoughts before, so we are still on the learning curve of making them easier to think and say.

Which reminds me: Sometimes a text is difficult to understand, even if it is written in plain language – it could be because it is saying something new and different, something requires the mind to change direction for a while and think differently.

His blog is bilingual (Norwegian / English). He also contributes to the blog Sosionautene (Norwegian only)

How To Present A Paper – or Can Anthropologists Talk? A wishlist

The Secret of Good Ethnographies – Engaging Anthropology Part III

Why is anthropological writing so boring? New issue of Anthropology Matters