When colour matters : racial hate crime and everyday violations in Sweden

The aim of this study is to give examples of, explore and discuss how people who belong to the group categorised as “non-white”, with an emphasis on Afroswedes, and depicted as racially different, experience hate crime and everyday harassment. The links of prejudices, stereotypes, colonial notions, everyday racism and violent hate crime is discussed from a Swedish perspective. Theories relating to colonial stereotypes, different kinds of racism, cross-border conflicts, the geography of hate and the consequences of hate crime are used to analyse the material. One key conclusion is that racial categorisations are still important for explaining people’s life possibilities and their vulnerability to hate crime, despite the fact that in present-day Sweden the significance of race is often denied. This denial can lead to hate crime and other forms of racial harassment being neglected by the authorities