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Osynligt förtryck och vita kroppar. Förhandlingar kring judiskhet i Sverige
Translated Title: Invisible oppression and white bodies. Negotiations on Judaism in Sweden
Author(s): Nylund Skog, Susanne
Date: 2014
Topics: Interviews, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Race
Abstract: The majority of the approximately 20,000 Swedish Jews are not immediately recognisable as Jews, and pass as ordinary Swedes. In this article, with inspiration from Critical Whiteness Studies, this invisibility is analysed in terms of whiteness. Critical Whiteness Studies argue that in postcolonial societies, such as Sweden, whiteness functions as a taken-for-granted norm that regulates who is regarded as white and Swedish. The aim of the article is to investigate the consequences of the norms of whiteness for Jewish life in contemporary Swedish society. From a large body of material on Jewish life in Sweden two interviews have been selected for analysis. The article argues that the practices of passing as white demand skills and knowledge about how and when it is suitable and adequate to expose or hide being Jewish. The interviewees find the category ‘Swedish’ far too limited to encapsulate Jewish life in all its forms. Their engagement in the practices of passing as white shows that Swedish contemporary society is imbued with colonial imaginary reproduction norms of whiteness.