Swedish Minister of Culture under fire for cake many are calling racially insensitive

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Swedish minister of culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth is at the center of attention brought on by her participation in a cake cutting in the shape of a naked black woman that many are calling racist.

Swedish minister of culture under fire

Liljeroth was participating in a World Art Day event at Stockholm’s modern art museum, Moderna Museet, where she was asked to cut a cake in the form of a black woman’s torso. The cake was created by artist Makode Aj Linde, whose head poked through a hole in the table as the woman’s head.

The artist said the cake was meant to bring attention to the issue of female circumcision and racism. As Liljeroth cut into the genital area of the cake, Linde screamed, “No. No.” Many are calling the ceremony racist, because the minister and others are laughing and taking pictures during the cake cutting.

The video and images sparked outrage, mostly from the National Afro-Swedish Association, which is calling for Swedish minister Liljeroth’s resignation.

“The Museum of Modern Art’s cake party meant to problematize female circumcision, but how this should be done with a cake depicting a racist caricature of a black woman, complete with blackface is unclear,” the group’s spokesman Kitimbwa Sabuni said in a statement on the group’s website.

Sabuni says there should be higher standards for Sweden’s highest political leaders.

“Taking part in a racist manifestations masquerading as art is that clearly cross the line and can only be interpreted as the Minister of Culture supports the Moderna Museet’s racist prank,” Sabuni wrote.

Liljeroth said she understood the controversy but insisted the incident is being misinterpreted, she told The Local.

“I understand quite well that this is provocative and that it was a rather bizarre situation,” Liljeroth said. “I was invited to speak at World Art Day and about art’s freedom and the right to provoke. And then they wanted me to cut the cake.”

She said the anger could be more appropriately directed at the artist, Makode Aj Linde.

“Linde claims that it challenges a romanticized and eroticized view from the west about something that is really about violence and racism,” Swedish minister of culture Liljeroth said. “Art needs to be provocative.”