Resistance in everyday encounters with racism: A study on how five young women of colour respond to the everyday racism they experience in Sweden

Abstract

Racism can be maintained and spread in a society through seemingly small everyday actions. In Sweden, this everyday racism often aims to point out that a non-white body is not Swedish by questions and comments on a person’s, sometimes assumed, ‘origin’. A study on everyday racism in Sweden therefore raises questions of national belonging in a globalised world. To understand how racism is not only expressed, but also negotiated and challenged, the aim of the research has been to analyse the unorganised, individual everyday resistance repertoire against racism that young women of colour potentially offer in their everyday lives. In addition to this, it will identify significant factors affecting the repertoire. It will not try to evaluate the effectiveness of the resistance, but the potential of social change will be discussed. The data comes from five semi-structured interviews with respondents who have revealed experiences of everyday racism in a related social media forum. One important finding in the study was that the resistance repertoire was strongly affected by the relationships between the actors involved in the encounter. Clearly, everyday racism occurs everywhere and can be expressed by strangers, teachers, colleagues, customers, neighbours, friends and family and the resistance repertoire vary accordingly. One alarming conclusion of the study was that the respondents often left schools, workplaces, neighbourhoods and friendships due to lack of understanding and support from the people involved in that specific context. This was often the outcome after several attempts to negotiate and challenge the racism they experienced.