ABSTRACT

This chapter examines some of the tensions in and possibilities of doing mixed race research in the Nordic region and provides an overview of the status in the field. Seeing as the field is, as mentioned before, almost deprived of work that specifically deals with the topic of mixed race identity, it tries to link this blind spot to the broader field of ethnic minority research. The chapter examines some of the tensions that we find in the encounter between what we can call a racial grammar of differences and an ethnic/cultural grammar of difference. It argues that part of the reason why mixed race studies is not a focus in the Nordic region is that the issue of race has a very complex and repressed discourse around it. The authors find interesting intersections and commonalities that bridge national borders even though there are also major contextual differences between, for instance, Norway and the US.