Sweden is of particular interest in terms of whiteness because of its solidified exceptional status, regarding questions of equality, within and outside of the country. Due to a number of reasons – the success of anti-immigration party Sverigedemokraterna being the most apparent – the Swedish exceptionality is becoming more unstable and antiracism cannot without at least some difficulty be claimed as the hegemonic stance. In this situation, whiteness as identity becomes a practical and discursive obstacle. I am interested in understanding how the obstacle of whiteness is negotiated – both explicitly and implicitly – in relation to anti-racism as work and language.
Furthermore, I am interested in studying the different ways in which class intersects with race in the constitution of normative whiteness and normative antiracism. There is a tension, sometimes declared and sometimes not, within parts of the Swedish anti-racist movements and the left, where class becomes a point of conflict. My study will aim to develop the understanding of the role of class, as a category of experience and a theoretical problem, within anti-racist practice and discourse.
