The nation of Denmark has been making the news lately because of Donald Trump and Greenland. The island nation belongs to the Danish, and the re-elected President wants to buy it or take it over. But, that’s not the only thing Denmark is aware of when it comes to the United States. This year marks key anniversaries in the U.S. civil rights movement. How Denmark views this history can give a window into how Europe sees the United States. We asked Former APR student intern James Niiler, now lives in the Danish city of Aarhus, to look into it.
“I am Benjamin Lundgaard. I am 26 and I'm also finishing my master's in American Studies…”
“I am Sebastian Allensen. I'm 21 and I've just begun my studies on the bachelor level of American Studies…”
“My name is Lucas Fausing, and I'm 22 years old, and I am finishing my bachelor's in American Studies….”
“I’m Matthias Wiengaard. I'm 25 years old, and I'm at the sixth semester in the bachelor's program of American Studies…”
If you want a picture of how Danes and other Europeans view the U.S., you could do worse than a five-student focus group at the University of Southern Denmark. Four students in this group are Danish.
“I'm from Italy and my maternal grandparents were from the southern part of Italy,” said
Elena Berardi, who’s Italian. And to hear her, you might think that the impression of America is good.
“And my grandfather was liberated by the Americans during the Second World War, so he always you know, was like, okay those Americans they were very great like to us and they helped us and also I think Italians have the American dream we also have a lot of icons and figures in the Italian-American part,” she said.
“I'm very interested in history and especially political history and the US Constitution is the longest Constitution that still exists to this day and the revolution inspired the European revolutions later on so the US has already from the beginning been very influential for European countries as well,” said Matthias Weingard, who wants to learn about how American political history has impacted that of Europe.
“Well, we've always talked about politics in my family home, so I've grown up with that and we've always talked about American politics because that's also very important to how the Danes perceived themselves,” said Sebastian Allenson, who studies the US with a global focus. “I think but mainly I'm interested in the role of capitalism in the American States or in the United States and also how American foreign policy has had consequences for people around the world,” he added.
It’s when you get into the topic of civil rights in the U.S. that things get dicey.
“The idea that America has, like the idea that everyone is equal, right? Written into the Declaration of Independence, but despite of that, it's not actually been brought up. I think most of what we heard about is the idea of the American dilemma, right?” asked Benjamin Lundgaard.
“As is described, that they claim that everyone is equal, but they don't treat people equally,” Lundgaard. “And that, I think, is the way we've, at least I've been educated about, like the civil rights movement, in comparison to our movements released from the US.”
This year, Alabama is observing the sixtieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the attack on Black voting rights marchers Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. But, when our students are asked what comes to mind when they think of U.S. civil rights.
“I remember talking about Rosa Parks in elementary school,”
“So I think that's how most things view the Montgomery Bus boycott and Rosa Parks as kind of like the kickstart of the homeless civil rights movement.”
“yeah, definitely the Montgomery bus boycott and Rosa Parks Martin Luther King, a bit less on the Selma attacks on the march”
“So it seems that Rosa Parks, in particular, is quite, is quite an important figure.”
And having university students talk a lot about Rosa Parks is something their professors deal with as well…
“When she died a couple of years ago, it was cut that was massive coverage of it in the Danish mass media,” said Professor Jørn Brøndal.
“Danish youth know about Rosa Parks. Know about Martin Luther King. They probably haven't heard about Fred Shuttlesworth. They probably haven't heard about Bob Moses, and maybe some have heard about John Lewis,” he said.
That hits Brøndal where he lives.
“I'm an historian, and I am a professor in American Studies here at the University of Southern Denmark, and I've always, in other words, been interested in US history,” he said.
The attack on voting rights marchers in Selma, known as Bloody Sunday, may not make of an impression on the Danish students we spoke with. But, Professor Brondal says the impact the incident had on the United States was clear to see…
“I mean, when the when Bloody Sunday came around in the United States, as far as recall the ABC network that shifted from a documentary about the Nuremberg process against Nazis and switched to what was going on at the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” Brondal observed. “And I think that that kind of shock that you saw in parts of the United States that was probably replicated in many European countries.”
What Brøndal and his students refer to as the ‘American dilemma’ appears as old as the US itself–if not older. How the United States was founded on a revolutionary promise of equality, the professors notes how the “land of the free and the home of the brave” has often failed to deliver that promise to all of its citizens.
“We hold these truths. We hold them to be self-evident. All men are created equal, that then created with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that is what sort of interested me, and also the fact that the person who at least was the main author of the Declaration of Independence was Thomas Jefferson, who also was an enslaver,” he observed.
Many Danes have stereotypes about Black Americans that don’t always line up with reality. The story of Black America is a complex one, marked by tragedy and triumph, discrimination and acceptance, and poverty and wealth. Brondal says these accounts often occur at the same time.
“Many Danes also associate African Americans mostly with poverty. Don't realize that there's a huge middle class, for instance, in Atlanta and in many other American cities,” said Brondal. “Don't realize that, but simply associate African Americans with inner city violence and inner city poverty, and with maybe a little bit of Mississippi poverty.”
“I think, as in the US where minorities might feel like second class citizens in some way,” said Lukas Fausang back in our student focus group. He can’t help but feel how what’s going on in the United States is reflected with how Denmark treats its own minorities.
“I think in Denmark, I think back to how it’s been covered that when refugees or immigrants with a foreign sounding name, they search for jobs and they, you know, they write their resume and their name is not something that sounds Danish, they get rejected,” he said.
Matthias Weingarad agrees, saying how America’s Black Lives Matter movement touches on a similar issue of racially-based policing in Denmark.
“Some people have criticized the Danish police for going to the so-called ghettos more often than other places. So although the problem is not the same, or at least it's not that extreme, you still have the debate and something similar is happening,” said Weingarad. “And you can find many people in Denmark who has an idea that the Danish police are racists and they are misusing their power to some extent. And then you also have some other people saying, no, no, it doesn't, that's not true.”
And, as the world gets closer to December’s sixtieth anniversary of the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks may come up in conversation more and more in Denmark…
I think it's because she was a woman, and it was, uh, I mean, I'm very proud to say that as a woman was like, she did something that I think a lot of people wanted to do, but she had the guts to do it. And also I think it's because it was a very simple thing that she did, like, she didn't assault the police or killed someone. She just switched seats on a bus. I think that was actually the very revolutionary move that she made,” she said.
