Going to Eden: Nordic exceptionalism and the image of blackness in Iceland

Abstract

Images and texts referring to Africa and African people have been created in Iceland since earliest time, in spite of Iceland's somewhat marginalized position. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century Icelanders were well familiar with the racial stereotypes dominating European discourse, and which often celebrated the colonial project, simultaneously as Icelanders themselves sought independence. My discussion suggests that social discourses addressing racism and race in Iceland reflect attempts to hold on to an idea of Icelandic innocence as a persistent and ongoing Icelandic characteristic, and Iceland seen as exempted from racism and colonialism of the past. This refusal to acknowledge racism has been also shown in other Nordic countries, thus reflecting a notion of Nordic exceptionalism. To demonstrate this, I focus on two social debates regarding racism in Iceland.

Keywords:

• racism
• i whiteness
• Nordic
• exceptionalism
• Iceland

Notes

1. I use the concepts black and white to mark the ways these historical categories structure social and economic realities in the world and in Iceland. At the same time, this paper also aims to unpack some of the specific historical dynamics and power relations involved in the ways racial meanings have been and are constructed in the Icelandic context.

2. The data is mostly based on two interconnected research projects in 2009 and 2011 supported by the Developmental Fund for Immigrant Matters, which is run by the Ministry of Social Affairs and a grant for the project Icelandic Identity in Crisis funded by the University of Iceland Research Fund 2010 and 2011. A part of the data was collected with the assistance Guðbjört Guðjónsdóttir and Diana Wilson whom I am really thankful to.

3. Statistics Iceland. 2008. ‘Lykiltölur mannfjöldans 1700–2008.’ Accessed November 23. http://hagstofa.is/Hagtolur/Mannfjoldi/Yfirlit

4. Statistics Iceland. 2011. ‘Innflytjendur eftir kyni, ríkisfangi, fæðingarlandi og komuári 1996–2011.’ Accessed June 15. http://www.hagstofan.is/?PageID=2593&src=/temp/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=MAN43001%26ti=Innflytjendur+eftir+kyni%2C+r%EDkisfangi%2C+f%E6%F0ingarlandi+og+komu%E1ri+1996%2D2011%26path=../Database/mannfjoldi/Uppruni/%26lang=3%26units=Fj%F6ldi.

5. Statistics Iceland. 2011. ‘Innflytjendur eftir kyni, ríkisfangi, fæðingarlandi og komuári 1996–2011.’ Accessed June 15. http://www.hagstofan.is/?PageID=2593&src=/temp/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=MAN43001%26ti=Innflytjendur+eftir+kyni%2C+r%EDkisfangi%2C+f%E6%F0ingarlandi+og+komu%E1ri+1996%2D2011%26path=../Database/mannfjoldi/Uppruni/%26lang=3%26units=Fj%F6ldi.

6. www.context.org.

7. Icelandic names are easily recognized due to that they generally derive from the Icelandic language with special characteristics and generally do not involve last names but a reference to being someone's daughter or son (dóttir or son). Of course, some people with immigrant background carry Icelandic names but the way in which people see their identity can also be interfered by the text of the messages themselves.

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