A Decolonial View

The term ‘race’ in Swedish is rarely used, but if it is, for example in scientific contexts, it is used in quotation marks to signal that it is not an accepted term. The term thus has a somewhat different meaning in Swedish compared with, for example, the use of the term race in the USA. The concept of race has been declared invalid by contemporary science as it lacks scientific evidence, but despite this, people today are attributed different values based on these ideas. Racism, however, is thus very present in contemporary Sweden. Although the concept of race is ‘empty’, it is important to make differences in society that are based on the notion of race visibly, as it is present.

Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/geneticists-should-rethink-how-they-use-race-and-ethnicity-panel-urges (downloaded 2024-02-17)

In this understanding race does not exists, but racism does.  This can be shown in the Swedish society where in theory everyone has equal rights and opportunities, but not in practice. Government reports show that there is a difference between immigrants or non-whites and Swedes or whites. It has also been shown that Swedish citizens born in Sweden but still tend to be categorized as immigrants in everyday speech, because they have immigrant parents. The notion is that these individuals belong to ‘a different culture’, have a ‘different ethnicity’ and often have a ‘different skin color’. ‘They’ are thus neither in nor outside the categories ‘we’ and ‘Swedes’.

Ethnicity is a concept that has had a great impact and is widely used in various explanatory models in Swedish research within social science. It is used to explain differences between people in terms of behavior and characteristics. Thus, Ethnicity, like race, is about dividing individuals into groups to discuss the characteristics of different groups. Ethnicity is as ‘empty’ a concept as race, but is ‘politically correct’, and has nevertheless come to be used extensively. The difference is that ethnicity has its origins in culture and not racial biology. Ethnicity should therefore be used with caution.

There is a self-image in Sweden and a tendency to avoid the concept of race and racism. Recognizing the existence of racism would damage Swedish identity and therefore racism is neglected and/or denied. The concept of ethnicity to explain differences between people and to some extent phenomena such as xenophobia and racism is common today by scholars and in general. Replacing race with other terms has become more common among racists and xenophobes as well, but it is the same concept but in different words. 

Why do Swedes not talk about racism? This became clear when I examined a social studies textbook for the Swedish upper secondary school. Race and racism as phenomena were discussed, but without using the terms. In one paragraph it was described how immigrants have more difficulty entering the labor market and taking part in the Swedish welfare state, but structural racism was not mentioned. I think this has to do with what was described above. In some kind of zeal for goodness, desire for political correctness, and shame values that are considered ‘un-Swedish’ are a part of Swedish society. This has resulted in racist expressions being more difficult to identify and thus more difficult to combat.

Bibliography 

Eliassi, B. (2017) Conceptions of Immigrant Integration and Racism Among Social Workers in Sweden, Journal of Progressive Human Services, 28:1, 6-35, DOI: 10.1080/10428232.2017.1249242

Ericsson, Martin, (2016), Historisk forskning om rasism och främlingsfientlighet i Sverige: en analyserande kunskapsöversikt, Stockholm: Forum för levande historia.  

Fredrickson, George M., (2005), Rasism: en historisk översikt. Lund: Historiska media

Hübinette, Tobias (2017), ”Den färgblinda antirasismen slår tillbaka”, i: Hübinette, Tobias (red.), Ras och vithet: Svenska rasrelationer igår och idag, Stockholm. 

Karlsson, Lars-Olof (2011) Arena 123, Stockholm. 

Sernhede, Ove (2022) ”Etnicitet” i Christofer Edling & Fredril Liljefors (red.) Ett delat samhälle- Makt, interektionalitet och social skiktning. Stockholm. 

Wasniowski, Andréaz,, (2017), ”Rasismens former – om vetenskapligt och ideologiskt tänkande”, i: Hübinette, Tobias (red.), Ras och vithet: Svenska rasrelationer igår och idag, Stockholm.