Racism as intimacy – looking, questioning and touching in the service encounter

ABSTRACT

The article aims to explore the embodied experience of processes of racialisation within service work with a special focus on what workers identify as central bodily strategies in defining them as the ‘other’. Theoretically, the analysis is inspired by the concept of everyday racism with a special focus on the central role of whiteness embedded in definitions of Swedishness. It also engages in dialog with postcolonial and feminist theories on the role of the body in relation to place and profession. Three practices evolve from the narratives as central to the processes of ‘othering’: looks, the repetitive question of origin and touches. The article consists primarily on 12 qualitative, in-depth interviews with service sectors employees who experience racism.

KEYWORDS:

• Bodies
• everyday racism
• service work
• Sweden
• work

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their encouraging, interesting and challenging comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 I use the term ‘Afro-Swedish’ following the informants’ self-definition as ‘Afro-Svenskar’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.