Osman’s car that solidarity and cohesion in the corona crisis still does not seem to apply to everyone.
I read the news about “several Swedish males among corona deaths in Stockholm” on SVT’s site and think of a number of different things that I just have to get out of my mind.
1. I can’t even imagine how it feels to lose a loved one in this way. All my thoughts go to relatives who are forced to bury their loved ones in these circumstances. Or relatives who, in some cases, because of the prevailing situation, cannot even offer their relatives the funeral they deserve. You are in my prayers.
2. I don’t want to help police the misery, but articles like these allow nothing else. When most media highlight how many of the dead in Stockholm have a Somali background, it once again highlights Sweden’s relationship with minorities in general, and the Somali in particular.
Instead, point to the actual conditions people have.
Many were quick to claim that it is because of a lack of information in Somali that these people have fallen victim. There is no reason to guess this, and of course it can be (in the line of so many more) factors in some case. But I can’t help comparing this to the downturn of ignorant illiterate Somalis. In this now a variety of such posts flourish on social media, organized by the extreme right, where the deaths are explained with poor literacy.
To assume that people could prevent their own death if they only “learned” Swedish, or to assume that these people would not be able to Swedish (or for that matter do not have a number of different people in their vicinity who can inform) is a debt-bearing without its like.
So instead of pointing to factors that you can’t do much about, point to the actual conditions people have.
Being able to live healthy is a class issue.
Escape from underlying illnesses that can be crucial in virus outbreaks is a class issue.
Living in confinement is a class issue.
To be taken seriously in health care is a class issue.
Not having the opportunity to work from home is a class issue.
To be the one who applauds the health care system rather than exposing itself to risks within the health care is a class issue.
The six people who died in the corona suites in Stockholm are more than Swedish painters.
A pandemic tends not to care much about who is affected. However, we all have different conditions to protect ourselves.
Finally, we talk a little more about solidarity. But this does not seem to apply to everyone with solidarity and cohesion. For not even in our death, not even when death was caused by something unpredictable, do we stop being something other than our background.
The six people who died in the corona suites in Stockholm are more than Swedish painters. They have names. They have families preparing funerals and relatives who are grieving.
Solidarity should apply to them as well.
By Bilan Osman
Bilan Osman is a writer and lecturer at Expo.
Source: expressen.se
