Gringo magazine, or the changing face of multicultural media

Gringo is a magazine that comes out as both a monthly eight page pull-out section in the freely distributed newspaper Metro and as a 100-page quarterly magazine.

Meryam Can, Managing editor of Sweden's irreverent urban magazine Gringo, talks to Radio Sweden about integration, segregation and life in the suburbs

How does Gringo differ from other magazines?

We write about the suburbs and the people who live in the suburbs. We write in a loving, positive way. If you look at the things other magazines and newspapers write, they tend to write about the suburbs and people in the suburbs in quite a negative way - we would like to change that picture. We write in a positive way.

In what way do other media write about life in the suburbs in a negative way?

Personally I think they write in two different ways. First they are "exotify-ing" the suburbs and the people who live there. The say that the suburbs are filled with exotic oriental food and music and that people's clothes are different. We're given that picture. Then we have the negative picture of people in the suburbs as often criminal - that he or she is poor - or has had a rough life. That's not the whole picture - that's not the whole reality.

What is the reality?

The reality is what you read in Gringo! It much much more. For one, you do have (ethnically) Swedish people who live in the suburbs. But when you read other media you are presented a picture as if only "blackheads" (Swedish slang for immigrants with dark complexions) live there. The reality is that allot of things happen in the suburbs. Allot of positive things but we never get to read about them. Teenagers and young people who are active in good ways - we don't hear about these people in the majority of media here in Sweden.

What is the reason for this?

I think it is a question of knowledge. I think it is a lack of diversity of people working at newspapers here in Sweden. Newspapers have to have a mix of different people - different age groups - men and women, heterosexuals homosexuals - to be a multicultural magazine. If you have those kinds of people working at a magazine you can write about every issue in the community. We say Gringo is the most Swedish magazine in Sweden. Because if you look at people who work here - we are diverse. We are all young - but we are all different. We come from different places throughout Sweden - throughout Stockholm. We have ethnic Swedes. I think that the mix, lends us the possibility to approach issues from many different angles.

Yet you say you want to present a positive picture of the suburbs - Is there a risk that you might present a less critical assessment or judgement of the situation?

Absolutely not! We are self-critical. And we know we have some things we need to work with. For example, since we write about the suburbs even we tend to write allot about "blackheads", people with black hair - who don't look like ethnic Swedes - reinforcing the picture that the suburbs are filled exclusively with non-ethnic Swedes. We are aware of this problem and are trying to change.

Your critics say that by dealing mainly with immigrants and not talking about the Swedish population in general - Gringo is not exactly helping integration in Sweden..

No, I absolutely don't agree. We talk about integration as a question of class and not an ethnic question. The suburbs in general are poorer than the inner cities. We are trying to erase the picture that you are criminal and living a hard life as a natural occurrence of not being an ethnic Swede. Its because of your social background, your social status and your income. That is the picture we are trying to emphasise. We have been criticised for what people call "segregating" and that we are not integrating because of the way we write - but we are trying to write about integration and discrimination with allot of humour. A while ago I wrote a test about prejudice where people could test themselves. We did it in a funny way and described all these prejudice thoughts that people have about each other we point out the absurdity. That's how we like to write at Gringo.

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