"There is nothing wrong with being a mulatto": Structural discrimination and racialized belonging in Denmark

This article addresses structural discrimination in everyday lives of Danes with mixed racial heritage. We explore how discrimination (implicit, underlying, and discursive) is expressed and resisted in seemingly neutral interactions. Using structural discrimination as our framework, we look at how this type of discrimination contributes to the racialisation of national belonging in Danish contexts. In particular, we examine how notions of ‘Danishness’ are discursively linked to racialisation. Furthermore, we discuss some dilemmas that arise for racially ‘mixed’ and other racialised Danes. These include denial and deflection of discrimination, as well as problematics of belonging. Constructions of Danishness, we argue, rely on (and express) racialised understandings and discriminatory assumptions which explicitly and implicitly influence the experience of (and potential for), belonging within constructions of Danishness. Our findings suggest that certain paradoxes arise in the lives of Danes with mixed racial heritage and other racialised Danes.