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

Abstract

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.