Structural Discrimination – Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This article examines challenges that arise when discrimination is expressed in communication across perceived differences (inter-cultural communication). More specifically, it looks at how visible minority Danes navigate in regard to structural discrimination (implicit and underlying forms of discrimination) imbricated in seemingly neutral everyday communication. It argues that structural discrimination is discursive and constitutive and is expressed in language as well as communicated in the form of naturalizations and embodiments of discrimination. It suggests that structural discrimination is so deeply imbricated within day-to-day forms of communication and interaction across perceived differences, that it is (nearly) invisible and normative. A particular challenge is how Danes of color navigate in situations where discrimination is vehemently denied, yet simultaneously apparent.

A central focus is the tension or discrepancy that arises between acknowledged and unacknowledged experiences of discrimination. These include verbal as well as non-verbal communication, abstract and implicit social codes and behaviors, and embodied experience. The article is primarily theoretical, but takes its point of departure and examples from qualitative research conducted in Copenhagen, Denmark from 2011 - 2013.