Becoming Diversity: Critical perspectives on an anti-racist discourse in contemporary Swedish media

Abstract

This thesis focuses the Swedish anti-racist campaign ”Vi gillar olika” that was launched in relation to the Swedish election 2010, where the anti-immigration party Sverigedemokraterna gained parliamentary representation. “Vi gillar olika” is pronounced as a “call to the silent majority to take a stand against xenophobia” and “for diversity”. This thesis analyses the discourse with the aim of problematising the idea of “diversity” as well as the idea of “xenophobia”. In a broader sense it seeks to problematise a popular understanding of “antiracism” and questions the inherent “goodness” in seemingly “good deeds”. It posits the questions: How is difference and diversity understood in the discourse? How is racism and anti-racism understood? How does “Vi gillar olika” communicate its society? The thesis explores how, by projecting racism to the margins of the Swedish society and celebrating difference as a social good, the majority society as represented by “Vi gillar olika”, is brought forth as both anti-racist and diverse. Applying critical theory, mainly as formulated by Sara Ahmed, the thesis discusses how “Vi gillar olika” as a (re)negotiation of the space Sweden can be seen as a (re)negotiation of the space of whiteness, and how violence can be seen to structure the project.