With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?: Structural Discrimination and Good Intentions in Danish Everyday Contexts

Abstract

In this article, I address structural discrimination, an under-represented area of study in Danish research. In particular, I introduce the concepts of microdiscrimination and benevolent discrimination. These are proposed as two ways of articulating particular and opaque forms of structural racial discrimination, which have become normalised in everyday Danish (and other) contexts. I present and discuss discrimination as it surfaces in data from my empirical studies of discrimination in Nordic (Danish) contexts. These studies underscore how everyday assumptions and norms contribute to discriminatory practices in particular ways. The article, in introducing the terms micro-discrimination and benevolent discrimination, hopes to identify and acknowledge attitudes and behaviours that fall outside the purview of everyday understandings of discrimination and racism. In addition, it is my hope that these terms can be of use with regard to addressing and reducing challenges within antidiscrimination and social exclusion frameworks.

Keywords

• structural discrimination
• benevolent discrimination
• micro-discrimination
• racism