edit: removed/added some text, it’s strong/hard reading at times
Some of us are blond, blue eyed and tall. Others are darker and more petite. In my own case, I have dark, straight and quite thick hair, green/hazel colour eyes with an almond-like shape and golden-ish ivory/peach skin tone. When I was younger and very thin (weight 40 kilos/90 pounds), I had quite sharp facial features. I measure at 156 cm, or about 5 foot 1 inches.
Many Scandinavian people are also ethnically diverse, especially in the Northern parts. The ethnic groups include the indigenous Saami people, Finnish and Kven people, Russians, Norwegians and many more, including a minority of Arctic indigenous and Northern Asian people (edit: the Arctic/Northern Asian groups are often further back in history, but it’s evident in many peoples DNA-tests). Many of my ancestors spoke Saami languages and Finnish/Kven language, but the Norwegian State policy of Fornorskning/Norwegianization was powerful. Many people lost their languages and roots this way.
The Southern Scandinavians can have some Romani and/or other Traveller/Reisende origins, including the indigenous Norwegian Travellers. There are groups of Forest Finns also, they originally came from the regions Savonia and Tavastia in Finland. There are also many with German origins from WWII. The Reisende ancestry is likely for several of my Southern Scandinavian relatives and ancestors. Before non-European immigration to Norway, almost all the ethnic groups were basically white people. There is a term for this; Blenda-white. That doesn’t mean we are non-mixed ethnicity, but we have generally fair skin and light colour eyes on average. Sweden often has historically more diverse origins, Romani people have lived in Sweden for centuries for example.
some of my family members look Central Asian, because that’s in our genes. According to DNA-testing, we also have many other Asian, Arctic, different African roots (some or many generations back in time). And the Southern, Northern Scandinavian and Finnish influences, plus non-European influences, combine into diversity and different features.
I’m saying this because it is somewhat annoying with the stereotypes. And don’t forget the different cultures and languages, these are the most important aspects of ethnicity. My Southern Scandinavian relatives can often have different appearances, languages and cultures than the Northerners like myself. My Swedish relatives have an accent that is very different from Northern Norwegian language, it’s sometimes quite difficult to follow the conversation. They are interesting to talk with and they love family, history and genealogy. My Southern Norwegian relatives are awesome people, very friendly and kind. They have great passion for boats and travel. And the language is wonderfully different from our Northern way. And it’s my roots, my family.
Even within the Northern region, there is great diversity in features, overall look and culture. I spent my youth in a Northern town with significant historical Northern European influences and much fewer Saami people, and they are generally very tall and very Nordic looking. I’m not. And it’s a different culture in general, more like a small city with it’s own culture. And the outsiders like me were treated like they did back in the day, Norwegians first; Saami people last. I was very short and this was the focus, everyone made fun of my height and stole my things, chased me around, attacked and kicked my friend to the ground in front of me etc. It makes me angry to this day. And it only got worse, I got psychotic symptoms and my life was never-ending agony. It made it impossible to study and pay attention, both the voice-hearing/psychosis and the rejection from others. I don’t identify with the perfect Norwegian “normal” person in the least. And the friends I had there were (almost all) from non-European countries, we got along better in many ways.
Btw I’m about 1/4th far-Southern Norwegian and 1/16th far-Southern Swedish. This has significant impact on our family culture; like politics, religion, language, food and so on. My southern Swedish ancestors were strongly communist, my southern Norwegian ancestors were very conservative Christians and the languages are very different from each other and also the Northern way of speaking. These different influences are still a part of our family culture and heritage, also in 2024. I love my background and family.
Many in my family have suffering related to racist comments and horrible bullying/abuse, in my fathers case including unprovoked racist violent attacks. The youths beat him severely with metal chains and other weapons. He was just 12 years old at the time, I’m just speechless (jeg har ikke ord). His family contacted the police, but nothing came of it so these youths got away with the horrible abuse. They also bullied him in many other cruel ways, for many years. It wounded our family, in more ways than one. My father has heavy substance addictions and mental health conditions, and I don’t know him and have not met him since the 2000s.
I know this discrimination both first-hand and indirectly. It makes me very angry and we must fight this prejudice with a passion, and with a quest for knowledge.