“I can’t fight all the time. Who the hell supports me if something happens to me?" : A qualitative study of the expression of everyday racism and its impact on five women.

The aim of this study is to describe and explain how five women with a non-European background find the expression of everyday racism in today’s Swedish society, how everyday racism can affect their mental health and how they experience that the Swedish majority population handle and respond to everyday racism. The study is qualitative and was made with semi-structured interviews. The theories used are the theory of everyday racism, "we" and "the Others" and Goffman’s stigma. The results indicate that everyday racism is manifested through the population's ignorance and silence, comments, prejudices and stereotypes and is mainly expressed in arenas where there are many people at the same time. According to the women, the school and the labor market are the two most common arenas for the expression of everyday racism. They witness that the Swedish majority population rarely deal with the occurrence of everyday racism. Their mental health is negatively affected by everyday racism and can lower the individual's self-esteem. The study’s three theories that include everyday racism, “we” and “the Others” and stigma can be applied to the women's stories about their experiences and feelings about everyday racism in the Swedish society