Were the Finns ever considered as the Negroes of the North?

Question

The Finnish member of parliament Teemu Keskisarja recently made headlines by claiming in a parliament speech:

Suomen rasismihistorian lyhyt tiedonanto:

...Esivanhempamme eli Pohjolan neekerit olivat 1800-luvun rotuopeissa vastakohta germaanitaustaisille viikingeille ja vaaleiden arjalaisten sinisilmille...

En kanna kaunaa Ruotsille, Venäjälle ja yläluokalle...

English translation:

Brief information on the history of racism in Finland:

...Our ancestors, the Negroes of the north, were, according to 19th century racial theory, the opposite of the Germanic Vikings and the blue eyes of pale Aryans...

I don't hold a grudge against Sweden, Russia and the upper class...

Most of the discussion I have seen has been on whether or not dropping the N-word was acceptable. However, I haven't yet seen a fact check on the original claim.

So, were the Finns ever characterized by the above epithet?

(I have translated the Finnish word "neekerit" as "Negroes" but it also can also be translated as the extremely offensive "n****rs".)

Answer 1

Some such comparisons were made, but shouldn't be exaggerated.

In the July 1861 Brownson's Quarterly Review writings of Vincenzo Gioberti state:

the Finns and Negroes, the two most degenerate lineages, divide between them the two extremes, the Arctic and the Equator

In the 1853 The Educational Institutions of the United States, Their Character and Organization, written in Swedish and translated into English, it is said:

In America the prejudice against people of colour is not so strong in the country, where they are found in small numbers only, as in the cities, where they are assembled in great numbers, and where the difference of race is rendered still more prominent by their being crowded together in separate localities the so-called "negro quarters." […] I am persuaded that if the Laplanders, for instance, were suddenly to be removed to Stockholm, and to establish their abodes in that city, they would soon occupy the same position in relation to the rest of the population, as the free negroes do to the white population in America […]. What I have learnt in Lapland regarding the position in which the Finnish race stands to the rest of the population, confirms me in this opinion. [emphasis added]

Also, the article Count de Gobineau's Ethological Theory published in the July 1911 Nineteenth Century and Beyond says:

Finns and negroes were equally drowned in savagery

and

Finns and negroes, however inferior to the white man...

Answer 2

Some digging has led me to one purported source, Arthur de Gobineau's "Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races". A cursory skim of the document reveals it to be about what you'd expect from an essay that introduced "Aryan" as a term for Germanic people. While the term "Negroes of the north" does not directly appear, there are a few hints of this. First, his definition of the "three races" is

I find these races naturally divided into three, and three only - the white, the black, and the yellow. [...] by yellow [I mean] the Altaic, Mongol, Finnish, and Tatar branches.

Of which he later says

As for the black and yellow types, they are mere savages in the tertiary stage, and have no history at all.

Touching on the Finns, he presents his opponents' theory and his rebuttal for it as such:

The unitarian theory is backed by such arguments as the following: "The Magyars are of Finnish origin, and allied to the Laplanders, Samoyedes, and Eskimos. These are all people of low stature, with wide faces and prominent cheek-bones, yellowish or dirty brown in colour. The Magyars, however, are tall and well set up; their limbs are long, supple and vigorous, their features are of marked beauty, and resemble those of the white nations. The Finns have always been weak, unintelligent, and oppressed. The Magyars take a high place among the conquerors of the world. They have enslaved others, but have never been slaves themselves. Thus, since the Magyars are Finns, and are so different, physically and morally, from all the other branches of their primitive stock, they must have changed enormously."

[...]

[...] Happily for common sense, there is no need for surprise, as the argument, though otherwise perfect, makes one vital mistake—the Hungarians are certainly not Finns.

Some time later, de Gobineau discusses mixed races, and concludes

[...]Again, in the Malayan variety, a human family was produced from the yellow and black races that had more intelligence than either of its ancestors. Finally, from the union of white and yellow, certain intermediary peoples have sprung, who are superior to the purely Finnish tribes as well as to the negroes.

So, I would say that it is credible that the characterization "Negroes of the North" has been applied to Finns.