Swedish Minister of Culture Under Fire for ‘Racist Cake’

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

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.

Linde said that the cake was meant to draw awareness to the issues of female circumcision and racism.

As Liljeroth cut into the genital area of the red sponge cake, Linde mock screamed, “No. No.” The minister and the people surrounding the table laugh and take photos, which can be seen in video of the event.

The video and images sparked outrage, most notably from the National Afro-Swedish Association, which is calling for the 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.

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