Between a rock and a hard place: a study of everyday racism, racial discrimination, and racial microaggressions in contemporary Denmark

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore how individuals navigate in seemingly neutral contexts where discrimination occurs while it is simultaneously denied. We address how structural discrimination (implicit, underlying) is so deeply imbricated within day-to-day forms of communication, interaction, and within language, that it has become part of social normality and, as such, nearly invisible. Further, we argue that structural discrimination is part of a shared knowledge that must be negotiated and navigated within, but which changes with place and context. In the article, we dissect and explore some of the ambivalences embedded within racialized and discriminatory interactions. We do this in our discussion of the following: (1) Complex, shared underlying knowledge of discrimination which encompasses systematized stratifications of difference. (2) ‘A knowing the inside/being the outside position’ which, for some individuals, may contribute to challenges in regard to navigation within discriminatory contexts.