Swede Minister Blasted for 'Racist Cake' Stunt

A Swedish culture minister is under attack for gleefully cutting into a cake made to look like a racist caricature of a black African woman. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth defended the cake-cutting event, part of an art installation at Stockholm's modern art museum that was intended to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation. She began, as instructed, by slicing into the cake's "clitoris." Blackened-faced artist Makode Aj Linde posed as the head of the cake, and screamed every time someone cut it, eliciting smiles from cutters. Leaders of the African-Swedish Association, who are clamoring for the minister's resignation, ripped the event as "a racist spectacle," reports the Guardian.

In our view, "this simply adds to the mockery of racism in Sweden," said a representative. "Adelsohn Liljeroth's participation, as she laughs, drinks and eats cake, merely adds to the insult against people who suffer from racist taunts and against women affected by circumcision." The minister conceded the event was provocative and bizarre, but said she had been invited to speak about artistic freedom, adding: "They wanted me to cut the cake." (More Sweden stories.)