Hans Geelmuyden acknowledges racist comments – Umar Ashraf praises the regret – VG

– I think I have regretted many times, which is why we sent that message now, says Geelmuyden to VG. He thinks the context it was said in makes it racist.

– I couldn’t say this to anyone. That’s why it’s becoming racist, he continues.

Hans Geelmuyden is a senior partner and manager of Geelmuyden Kiese.

Geelmuyden Kiese is Scandinavia’s largest communications agency with offices in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, and Bergen. The company has 130 employees and was established in 1989.

– For me, this has been a week marked by a lot of acknowledgments, that we have discrimination and racism in Norwegian society. It’s been an awakening for me. No one gets old until they stop learning. That’s why I feel like a young man.

Ashraf satisfied

Communication advisor Umar Ashraf is aware of the regret, and tells VG that it is nice that Geelmuyden now acknowledges his mistakes.

I’m very pleased. It is such a society we want. This is the behavior we need from business leaders, says Ashraf. He believes the first step towards an anti-racist society is to acknowledge the mistakes made.

– I know that this will cost him too, so it’s brave. The same people who have been hard at me lately will probably be very disappointed with him now, says Ashraf.

He says that in recent days he has demanded, and describes that he has been hung out on, among others, Resett, Dokument.no and Human Rights Service. He also says that people have shared personal photos taken from his wife’s Facebook account.

– I’m really tired. It’s been a run without equal, and I’ve been trying to be painted as a dark man and opponent of free speech. The attacks illustrate how social debates with minority backgrounds are faced with hatred and hatred.

IKEA collaboration still closed

IKEA Norway decided on Monday to end the collaboration with PR agency Geelmuyden Kiese. At the time, Geelmuyden’s statement was a contributing cause, they stated. Thursday’s regret does not change anything about this decision.

– That decision has been made. No changes will be made there, says communications adviser Siv Egger Westin to VG on Thursday.

LO also broke the collaboration with GK on a single project.

– We are doing this because the statements of Hans Geelmuyden in recent weeks are in direct contradiction to the values ​​we stand for in LO, wrote information manager in LO Jenny Ann Hammerø in an email to Today’s Business.

“Authoritarian extremist”

– I strongly apologize for both comments and am very sorry for the pain and discomfort the comments have caused. Semantics and language are important because wrong words create prejudice. Prejudice in turn can lead to hatred and violence. I acknowledge that my comments were harmful, insensitive and unacceptable, Hans Geelmuyden writes in a press release.

– I understand that as an opinion leader I have a great responsibility for promoting diversity through both words and action, and in the future I promise to refrain from racist statements.

In an interview with the industry newspaper Campaigns On June 15, Geelmuyden stated that “kebab Norwegian is not good enough in GK”. In a Facebook thread first mentioned by Campaign, Geelmuyden also called communications adviser Umar Ashraf a “authoritarian extremist” and further that Ashraf had to learn “Western values ​​and not abuse them”.

– I acknowledge that both comments are racist. The statement about “kebabnorsk” is racist because of the context in which the statement was made. Both statements are otherwise regretted repeatedly. Since not everyone has brought the complaints, my official regret follows here, he writes.

At the same time, he writes that he asks to be believed that these comments do not represent what he stands for as a human being.

– In action, I have worked intensively for 31 years to make Geelmuyden Kiese a diverse and inclusive workplace. I hope that both current and former colleagues can confirm this. The events of the past few weeks motivate me to further efforts for more diversity and integration, both in GK and in society, he writes.