‘The nurse told me I couldn’t keep my baby’: how a controversial Danish ‘parenting test’ separated a Greenlandic woman from her children (www.theguardian.com)
from pete_link@lemmy.ml to world@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 16:34
https://lemmy.ml/post/32448866

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/32448865

Miranda Bryant in Thisted
Sun 29 Jun 2025 07.00 EDT

#world

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TediousLength@lemmy.ca on 29 Jun 17:14 next collapse

Absolutely disgusting… Completely biased and clearly racist test. Fucking fascists everywhere…

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 17:17 next collapse

simply being Greenlandic will be enough to get the attention of social workers.

The tests cover attachment, personality traits, cognitive abilities and psychopathology, and take about 15-20 hours. It is almost impossible to pass them, says Nellemann; even he and his colleagues have failed to do so.

I remember reading about this late last year, and I remember not trusting that social worker or the process one bit.
I once watched a documentary about this kind of “social service” and some of their methods are 100% unscientific, and don’t take personality traits or just moods into account, like whether a person is extro- or introvert. I even posted about it on feddit.dk, but was met with much skepticism. One of the things I saw, was that if a baby doesn’t seek eye contact with a stranger holding it, it should be a sign that the mother doesn’t give the baby enough attention! Yes really it’s that stupid! When obviously it’s more likely the baby doesn’t appreciate a stranger.

I can’t put into words how much I despise that kind of quackery! Because that’s what it is.
But quackery is unfortunately standard procedure in social services. And social services even trump real doctors, meaning quackery trumps real doctors by law!!
Quackery is illegal in Denmark, except in social services where it’s an everyday phenomenon.

dharmacurious@slrpnk.net on 29 Jun 19:09 next collapse

I haven’t read the article yet (sneaking Lemmy time at work), but this reminds of the literacy tests they used to use for voting in the US for black folks

Hobo@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 23:48 next collapse

Exactly what popped into my head too. They also had questions that were ambiguous. “What’s the big staircase in Rome?” doesn’t really have a single correct answer much like many of the literacy tests in the Jim Crow south.

hr_@lemmy.world on 30 Jun 05:50 collapse

Because they are the same thing

redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Jun 20:40 next collapse

France makes great use of quacks. Gordon Ramsey has some instructional videos.

ToastedRavioli@midwest.social on 29 Jun 21:07 next collapse

It’s worth copying that whole section, rather than just the first sentence. This shit is horrific and blatantly racist

The tests cover attachment, personality traits, cognitive abilities and psychopathology, and take about 15-20 hours. It is almost impossible to pass them, says Nellemann; even he and his colleagues have failed to do so. Questions can include “What is glass made of?” and “What is the name of the big staircase in Rome?” Nellemann argues that the tests are culturally specific and a poor way to measure innate intelligence. “There is a lot of stigmatisation of people from Greenland,” he says. “We don’t know why we should use these tests for parenting.”

When Keira was given the test, for Zammi, she says she was told it was to see if she was ‘civilised enough’

He even goes so far as to compare the tests to a tool of fascism. “You take only one kind of people as the ‘real’ ones. We only choose the white, or ‘real’, Danish people.”

Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world on 30 Jun 00:59 collapse

One of the things I saw, was that if a baby doesn’t seek eye contact with a stranger holding it, it should be a sign that the mother doesn’t give the baby enough attention!

That’s so messed up. Newborns are born with poor vision. “At birth, an infant is very sensitive to bright light. You may notice how small their pupils look, limiting how much light enters their eyes. A newborn baby can see something next to them with their peripheral (side) vision, but their central vision is still developing.”

It takes time for their vision to develop. From that same source, “At about 1 month, your baby may focus briefly on you, but may still prefer brightly colored objects up to 3 feet away. Infants are able to see across a room even at birth, but they are mostly interested in objects very close to them.”

killea@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 17:38 next collapse

After recoiling in horror and delving in, it does appear that they have stopped using this test as of January this year (search: Denmark FKU). I don’t know if this woman has gotten her children back but its clear a lot of damage has been done already. Hardline institutional racism always make me wonder what is so upsetting as to justify such blind and heinous cruelties. It doesn’t seem natural, to predate on your own species.

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 17:44 collapse

I don’t know if this woman has gotten her children back

Probably not, the standard mode for social workers/services I’ve seen here in Denmark, is to double down, no matter how wrong their original decision was. It was their decision, and they are right by law, and it basically can’t be questioned.

dinren@discuss.online on 29 Jun 19:21 collapse

So much for perfect Denmark.

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 19:53 next collapse

Yeah it’s far from perfect, but it’s still better than most countries in most ways.
Child protection however is an extremely difficult area, because getting it wrong is horrible, despite they think they are helping the child. In other situations, there really is a need to protect the child.

elbarto777@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 20:09 collapse

Why are you being downvoted? If that shit is going down in Denmark, then it’s not as perfect as people claim to be.

And this is coming from someone who likes Denmark.

dinren@discuss.online on 29 Jun 20:26 collapse

Because people only like to make fun of one country on here, and if you point out how assholery exists everywhere they reeeeeee.

pixxelkick@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 18:03 next collapse

As a Canadian, all I can say is “hey wait a minute, I’ve seen this one before!”

I’m shocked this sorta shit still happens in 2025, how did this come into being? Thus might be a rabbit hole I go down, who founded this program, who vetted it, etc

ms_lane@lemmy.world on 30 Jun 05:50 collapse

We had this in Australia too :(

The_Decryptor@aussie.zone on 30 Jun 06:14 collapse
dastanktal@lemmy.ml on 29 Jun 18:07 next collapse

And here I thought the US was the one that treated our indigenous citizens like crap

protist@mander.xyz on 29 Jun 18:19 next collapse

You do realize the people doing that in the US all came from Europe

dastanktal@lemmy.ml on 29 Jun 18:22 collapse

Fair counterpoint. I should have but did not

catloaf@lemm.ee on 29 Jun 18:25 next collapse

Show me one place where indigenous people aren’t treated like crap by the government

dastanktal@lemmy.ml on 29 Jun 19:03 next collapse

Also good point. I guess New Zealand has been making strides by they are still having issues.

Just funny to note because a lot of Americans view Europe as like this Ultra free place that has none of the issues the US has.

MBech@feddit.dk on 29 Jun 19:26 next collapse

We usually don’t have these issues because we experimented away from home.

Zaktor@sopuli.xyz on 29 Jun 23:27 collapse

New Zealand recently just punished three politicians harshly for doing the Haka. They were protesting a proposed law to strip special constitutional privileges for the Maori stemming from the original colonial treaties. Those old British colonizers were apparently too respectful to the rights of the indigenous people for modern conservatives.

dastanktal@lemmy.ml on 29 Jun 23:32 collapse

I did say strides but having issues. At least they have indigenous representation. US def doesnt

elbarto777@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 20:10 next collapse

White European indigenous people.

What a strange question.

CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social on 29 Jun 21:16 collapse

To be fair, indigenous in this sort of context usually refers to a colonial state where the ruling group is different from the one there before a colonial empire got there. I don’t usually see it used for populations that haven’t been subject to conquest and occupation like that within the last millenia or so, even if it could technically fit, it’d be a bit redundant.

Though if the history of, say, Ireland is any indication, historically when white Europeans end up in that kind of position they haven’t faired much better.

elbarto777@lemmy.world on 30 Jun 16:17 collapse

Sorry, I was just being dense for the sake of it; and you of course, are correct.

grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Jun 23:11 collapse

Haiti. The indigenous people were wiped out through disease and slavery.

ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 20:16 next collapse

Why not both (and many other countries too)?

CXORA@aussie.zone on 30 Jun 02:19 collapse

So you don’t really pay attention to the rest of world history, huh.

dastanktal@lemmy.ml on 30 Jun 02:25 collapse

Jokes really do go over your heads down under don’t they.

Also have you seen the tragedy that is the American school system? I am lucky I can read and write, forget knowing the history of a British penal colony.

CXORA@aussie.zone on 02 Jul 11:44 collapse

Greenland. British penal colony.

Ok.

dastanktal@lemmy.ml on 02 Jul 14:29 collapse

For some reason I think I was referring to Australia. Not sure why

CXORA@aussie.zone on 03 Jul 04:14 collapse

Must be a fondness of non sequiturs

CircaV@lemmy.ca on 30 Jun 00:07 collapse

Racist colonialist shit. They did the exact same thing to Inuit and First Nations women and babies here in Canada.