Black Lives Matter the Danish Way: Solving American race issues with Scandinavian welfare initiatives
Since the death of George Floyd, justice for African-Americans in the United States has been on everyone´s lips.
No doubt, the position of blacks in contemporary American society is complex. And no doubt, genuine prejudice and discrimination against this group do exist.
On the other hand, slavery, segregation and other institutional measures that previously oppressed African-Americans no longer exist. So on paper at least, blacks have as good a shot at the American Dream as whites.
Considering this, it is clear that a very large part of the problem, today, is socioeconomic in nature: The fact that, in America, if your parents were poor, you are also likely to be poor.
This fuels a never ending circle of low paying jobs, inability to pursue higher education, poverty, drugs, teen pregnancies, crime, resentment, anger — and prejudice from the surrounding society. All things that help keep African-American communities in a marginalized position, generation after generation.
Enter the welfare state
The remedy to this vicious circle is the welfare state and public sector initiatives towards helping people break out of poverty. In order to fund these efforts, the public sector needs income through taxes.
In Denmark people generally pay between 37–53 % tax on our income. This is indeed a high price to pay. But the pay-off is a society where deep poverty is virtually eradicated. And, perhaps most importantly, where everybody can pursue higher education and become whatever they want, no matter how broke their parents were.
A case in point: Children of refugees
In Denmark, a traditionally vulnerable group has been the refugees. Since the 1980s, Denmark has received thousands of refugees from countries like Somalia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, Syria as well as stateless Palestinians.
Despite of differences between nationalities and individuals, first generation refugees — for obvious reasons — often have had a challenging time settling down in Denmark. With many of them traumatized by war and other hardships, they have often struggled with language and culture challenges, unemployment, living on public benefits, ending up in low paying jobs and family life in small apartments.
For the children of these first generation refugees, this is a potentially highly negative social heritage. However, within the first 1–3 generations this effect is almost annulled by the forces of the welfare state.
In Denmark, children of refugees will go to primary school, alongside Danish kids. These public schools are free of charge and generally of a good quality. Also, if the kids are faced with serious problems — at home, in school or otherwise — teachers, school counselors and social workers will be there to help them.
In addition to this, even though the parents may be on welfare and not have a lot of money, they will not be destitute to the extent that you see in many other countries. Even on public benefits, the family will still have enough money to pay the rent, buy enough food, get clothes, toys and bicycles for the kids and — in most cases — even own a car.
By the time the children got to go to high school, this is also free of charge. The same is the case with university, except for the few books students need to buy. Also, while at uni, students will receive a monthly government allowance worth roughly $800 to pay for housing, food, transportation, weekend shenanigans and so on.
These individual measures, designed to give each child a fair chance, are scattered all the way from birth until college. And in the end, it means that even if your parents were poor and uneducated, you still have a very good chance at becoming whatever you want.
Room for improvement
Despite the headway we have made towards eliminating negative social heritage, things are still not perfect in Denmark. Even today, it still matters what kind of family you came from and how much support you could count on from your parents.
Also, we have social housing projects in the big cities with higher rates of unemployment, crime and other social issues. And in some suburban schools, children of non-Western decent will match or even outnumber Danish kids.
Furthermore, teachers and social workers may not always do enough to help children having a hard time at home, that struggle academically or who hang out with the wrong crowd. And also in Denmark you can find cases of prejudice and discrimination.
But whereas these factors — where you come from and who your family is — which mean so much in terms of determining your future in most other countries, in Denmark they for the most part will only be of secondary importance.
That is the case for the 1st generation of children of refugees. And by the time you get to the 2nd and 3rd generation, in most cases, your ancestry will be little more than a curiosity.
Denmark and America
Travel across the Atlantic to the United States. Here, your ancestry is anything but a curiosity. Slavery was abolished more than 150 years ago — and segregation more than 50.
Here, the color of your skin should have stopped having a significant, determining influence on your future a long, long time ago. And it could have happened, if the United States had been a more egalitarian society.
Where it didn’t have to be so hard to be poor, for adults and kids alike. And where going to college to follow your dreams didn’t have to be a matter of your parents being able to pay the outrageous tuition fees.
Denmark was frequently referenced to by Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary, both in 2020 and 2016. And even though it scarcely went beyond headlines, it is true that we have been able to create a society that has taken the top of all these social issues that cripple so many other countries (including the United States).
To achieve this, people have to pay up — every month, on every single pay slip. But the reward is a society where people, who were not born into affluence or with a high IQ or freakish physical talents, don’t have to walk around being afraid if they will be able to pay the hospitals bills, if they fall ill, and what will happen to their family if they lose their job.
Poor millionaires
Denmark is a highly egalitarian society. Here, a garbage man deserves the same respect as a bank manager. We don’t say ´sir´ or ´mam´, ´mister´ or ´miss´. We call coaches, professors and doctors by their first names. And it is not polite to brag.
Obviously, this will rub some people the wrong way. And in public debate, it is not uncommon to hear Danish millionaires — some of them based abroad — moan and groan about the tax rate and how Danish people are jealous of other people´s success.
But the vast majority of Danes, which for the vast majority means the middle class, is strongly in favor of the welfare state. Of course most of us would like to pay a little less tax and we regularly complain about our hospitals, public schools and other welfare services.
But at the end of the day, few Danish people would actually want to radically change the current system. As one Danish Michelin restaurant owner of Macedonian descent has said, ´it is more important to maintain this sense of community, where everybody chips in, than it is to have 10 Steve Jobss.´
Life is rarely like a Hollywood movie
So what about the American Dream and busting your hump to become whatever you want?
Well, it is inspiring to see people work their way out from humble beginnings to achieve their dreams. After all, that is what fairytales and Hollywood movies are made of.
But on the other hand, there is nothing inspiring about people ending up poor, just because their parents were. And in the real world, that´s what happens most of the time, if society is not able — or willing — to lend a helping hand.
So instead of betting on an outcome that we know in most cases will not materialize, societies should actively step in and do something to help those who weren’t born into the ´right´ family or the ´right´ neighborhood.
This is not just effective nation building.
It is also right.
For more information contact Jens on globejens@hotmail.com or follow him on Academia.edu, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube.
