AbstractThis article examines the effects of an anti‐racist narrative of a neighbourhood in Malmö, an important site of pro‐migrant and anti‐racist activism in Sweden. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2013–2016, the article analyses how this narrative was constructed as an effort to challenge the “crime‐due‐to‐immigration‐discourse” otherwise associated with Malmö and supported by far‐right political parties and their sympathisers in Sweden. The activists’ place‐based narratives constitute attempts of commoning and of prefiguring a certain future of the city as anti‐racist. This article shows how a certain narration of a place in a particular urban context enables and encourages a strong activist space, important when conducting large‐scale struggles for social justice and equality.