Beyond Black and White: counter-stories of national minorities in Norway in encounters with ignorance and racism in education
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Abstract
This article is based on interviews with 15 members of the National minorities in Norway – the Roma, Romani/Tater, Jews, Kven, and Forest Finns – concerning their experiences with learning about their own cultures in school. The authors apply Critical Race Methodology to highlight the counter-stories of participants. The participants navigate complex landscapes of identity work and desire for belonging, in a context recognized by sanctioned ignorance concerning Norway’s racist and colonial legacy. They speak back to common narratives of national minorities as victims, asserting their presence, diversity, and contributions to Norwegian history. The analysis demonstrates that racism experienced by National minorities is at particular risk of being ignored in alleged post-racial Norway. The authors argue the necessity of developing a more fine-grained analytical vocabulary to understand racism and whiteness in the Norwegian context. The discussion is connected to the wider international context concerning the pushbacks towards Critical Race Theory (CRT).
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Comparisons: Between Jews and Non-Jews Jewish Identity Main Topic: Education Minority Rights, Issues and Politics Schools: Jewish Pupils In Non-Jewish Schools
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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
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Bibliographic Information
Beyond Black and White: counter-stories of national minorities in Norway in encounters with ignorance and racism in education. 2026: https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-6129
