Blatteland
Words and photos Ben Kersley
‘Är du Blatte?’, I was asked out of the blue, a couple of weeks after arriving in Sweden. At the time I’d never heard the term, so was in no position to judge whether or not I was indeed Blatte. Months later and after speaking to a number of people, I’m better informed, but none the wiser.
Blatte is a word whose usage has changed dramatically over a short period of time and whose meaning alters depending on who says it and about whom it is said. In general terms, it is an offensive term for ‘immigrant’ and has recently been appropriated by ‘them’ to mean ‘us’ - much like in American English, it depends on who is calling whom Nigger.
A little context:
I was asked my question by a couple of teenagers of Middle Eastern origin. A little more context: I don’t look anything like your archetypal Svensson – I’m dark haired, dark eyed and dark skinned. I’m also English. So am I Blatte?
When I ask Swedish friends whether or not I am Blatte, there is a pause of discomfort at the use of the word. Although I fit their definition – immigrant, dark, faltering Swedish – they are all adamant that I cannot be Blatte, not only because I am from Western Europe, but because I have the wherewithal to analyse the definition.
Ivan Daza wants to turn around this negative image of Blatte. His mission at Blatteförmedlingen is to transform the word from having taboo connotations amongst Swedes and from being a subcultural tag amongst immigrants. Rather than see immigrants in a negative light, Daza speaks about “Blatte kompetens”; that nysvenskarna have a huge amount to offer Sweden, from cultural awareness to language ability to energy and drive. Unlike Arbetsförmedlingen, Blatteförmedlingen wants to see people in work rather than jump through hoops to avoid it.
Despite his infectious positivity, when I spoke to Daza he also held the common misconception of the word Blatte’s origin. Many Swedes will tell you with great authority that the word comes from the Italian blatta meaning cockroach. The likelihood that an Italian word should enter the Swedish language is very low and simply demonstrates the willingness to (consciously or subconsciously) attach a detrimental epithet to immigrants. According to Birgitta Lindgren, a language consultant at Svenska språknämnden, whose job it is to track and record changes in the Swedish language, the word probably originates from the Old Norse blathra – to talk nonsense. This emerges in English as blether and Swedish as pladdra – to talk gibberish.
The word was first recorded in a dictionary of slang in 1967 and meant ‘a clownish person of African origin’. As Lindgren points out, at this time brown faces were few and far between in Sweden and it wasn’t until the influx of immigrants in the late 70s and 80s when the word became the catch-all term for any immigrant who occupied the lower strata of society, be they African, Middle Eastern, Eastern European or South American. It is only as recent as the year 2000 when the word has started to be appropriated by non-ethnic Swedes themselves, possibly due to greater ghettoisation and alienation, particularly in Sweden’s larger cities.
Not willing to wait for the Swedish political behemoth to address this social exclusion, a number of dynamic organisations have sprung up to demystify ‘foreigners’, among them gringo.se, BlatteFC and Blatteförmedlingen. According to Daza, integration in Sweden is “ahead of Germany and France, yet behind the UK and Canada”.
To make Swedes aware of the fact that a large percentage of their population is not blonde haired and blue eyed, he plans to update Sweden’s favourite (American) immigrant, Kalle Anka or Donald Duck. Everyone loves his nephews, Knatte, Fnatte och Tjatte, as they are known in Sweden, but this year they will be joined by their brown-faced cousin, Blatte.
If young Blatte is welcomed by Kalle Anka with open wings remains to be seen and if he visits my place, I hope he doesn’t come by bike: On the cycle path to my part of town, somebody has graffitied Blatteland with an arrow pointed towards our mixed neighbourhood. To me this encapsulates the problem that is not being addressed by organisations such as Blatteförmedlingen; the word Blatte is most charged when used by those who feel disempowered – both ethnic Swedes who feel invaded by strangers, and those immigrants who have been unable to integrate into the notoriously inflexible Swedish system.
Disarming the word Blatte, will not eliminate racism as it is human nature to pick on difference to the nth degree, after all, it seems ridiculous now that Finns were once the lower class immigrants who were the subject of derision in Sweden. If Blatte becomes benign, it will only be replaced by another word that carries the sense of difference, much as gays became queers.
As for me, I’m happy to be Blatte to some, Engelsk to others, but as labelling people is fraught with difficulty, I’ll avoid branding my neighbours where I live in Blatteland, Sverige.
