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RESEARCH PRODUCT

“Who’s Afraid of the Dark?”: The Ironic Self-Stereotype of the Ethnic Other in Finnish Rap Music

Elina Westinen

subject

music videomedia_common.quotation_subjecthip-hop-kulttuuriEthnic groupStereotypeRacism060404 musicSuomiironiatoiseusSociologystereotypiatrapFinlandmedia_common060201 languages & linguisticsBarbarianSuperdiversityGender studies06 humanities and the artsIronymusiikkivideotMulticulturalism0602 languages and literaturehip-hop culturePrejudiceetnisyys0604 artsstereotype

description

Drawing on recent sociolinguistic work on globalization and superdiversity, this chapter explores the multisemiotic and ironic construction of the self-stereotype of the ethnic Other in a Finnish rap music video. Because Finland and Finnish hip-hop are still ethnically relatively homogeneous, people of migrant background, such as rap artist Musta Barbaari (Black Barbarian), need to negotiate their belonging in various ways. In the video, he deliberately constructs himself as the ethnicized and sexualized Other to highlight prejudice, discrimination and racism. In doing this, he voices societal critique and dissatisfaction – and speaks for multiculturalism and tolerance in (super)diversifying and polarizing Finland. peerReviewed

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2017-12-21
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59244-2_6