Stinky the Racist?
What a furry cartoon character in New York tells us about America, Finland, and how we see the world
At the beginning of August, a story broke that was so absurd I thought it had to be a joke. It wasn’t.
One of the Moomin characters — Stinky, also known as Haisuli in Finnish — was removed from an exhibition in New York. Why? Because someone thought he might, somehow, be perceived as racist.
Yes, Stinky. A mischievous little furball with a red nose and antennae.
A Beloved Character
If you’re Finnish, you already know how deeply loved the Moomins are. If you’re not, here’s the short version: Tove Jansson created these characters in the 1940s, and they’ve since become a cultural icon. You see them on mugs, toys, TV shows, and even at a theme park.
There isn’t a Finn I’ve met who doesn’t light up when talking about the Moomins. Kids and adults alike speak of them with warmth. They’re woven into Finnish identity the way Dragon Ball Z or Naruto was for me growing up.
Which makes it all the more bizarre that anyone would look at Stinky and see… racism.
The Absurd Complaint
The exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library was meant to celebrate 80 years of the Moomins and honor Jansson herself. But according to Roleff Kråkström, CEO of Moomin Characters:
“One of their supporters had thought Stinky could be seen as a racist symbol.”
Instead of pushing back, he replied politely:
“We see this as a healthy societal discussion.”
But how is this healthy?
If the first thought you have when looking at a children’s story full of fantastical creatures — white hippos, trolls, and a mischievous furball — is “this is racist”, I’d argue the problem is with you.
When Sensitivity Becomes Madness
This isn’t just about Stinky. It’s about the way hyper-racial awareness works. Once you start seeing everything through the lens of race, you find it everywhere — even where it doesn’t exist.
That kind of worldview doesn’t just distort the present. It rewrites the past. It teaches people to look at history with a single, negative filter. To only see what was wrong, and then use that as a broad brush to paint an entire society as rotten.
“Finland is a racist country.”
That’s the danger.
And let’s be clear: Tove Jansson was not a closet bigot. She was a lesbian living at a time when being openly gay was taboo — a queer creative pioneer. Her work is filled with themes of tolerance, belonging, and radical acceptance. To claim she was smuggling racist caricatures into her stories is insulting to her legacy.
Laughing at the Absurd
So what do we do with stories like this?
We laugh.
In Harry Potter, there’s a creature called a Boggart. It hides in a chest, takes the form of your greatest fear, and the only way to defeat it is to laugh at it — to cast the spell Riddikulus.
That’s how we should treat claims like this. Laughing strips them of power.
A Finnish Perspective
One of the things I’ve noticed living in Finland is how little “whiteness” matters here. Finns don’t primarily describe themselves as white — they describe themselves as Finnish. That’s all they’ve ever wanted to be.
When the Russian Empire tried to Russify them, Finns fought to preserve their identity. That was the battle — not skin colour.
Of course, there’s debate about the Sámi people and how they’ve been treated. But Finland never had an overseas colonial empire like Britain or France. It doesn’t have a history of slavery or institutionalised racial laws. It’s a different history, and a different context.
Which is why importing America’s racial neuroses into Finland is so dangerous.
A Final Word
No country is perfect. Finland has its share of ignorant people, like anywhere else. But as a rule, if you live here, contribute, and respect the norms, not many people care about the colour of your skin.
That’s why this whole Stinky episode matters. Not because one American complained, but because of how quickly institutions validated it. That’s where the real danger lies — giving ground where none needs to be given.
So yes, the idea of Stinky being racist is hilarious. But it’s also a reminder: Finland should protect its cultural confidence and refuse to be bullied into carrying guilt that doesn’t belong to it.
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If you want to watch the Youtube version of this, you can do that HERE