In recent months we have witnessed a steady rise in the prominence of right-wing politicians taking centre stage in the European political arena. Take France’s Marine Le Pen for example, who is gaining a vast amount of media attention for all the wrong reasons. Strong anti-immigration rhetoric largely dominates the policy ideals of European right-wingers, leading to societal divisions.
Last month the Danish parliament released a controversial statement stating that the “Parliament believes Danes should not be in the minority in neighbourhoods in Denmark. Today there are areas in Denmark where the proportion of immigrants and descendants from non-Western countries is over 50 percent.”
Many people took this to be an offensive statement suggesting that immigrants, and ‘descendents of non-western countries’ living in Denmark cannot be classed as real ‘Danes’.
As a counter-response a powerful video was created by local media organisation ‘Gorilla Media’ featuring a group of Danish children of ‘non-western’ ancestry being questioned on where they believed they were from. The children all identify themselves as Danes, having been born and brought up in the country, and become emotional when they are told that they are not in fact Danish. It successfully illustrates how harmful the comments of the parliament were on Denmark’s future generations.
Gorilla Media state that they made the video ‘as a powerful reminder to those in power to remember that the choices they make, affect everyone, especially our children.'
See their website for more information on their message behind the video.
SE
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