ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 explores the preliminary works that led to the adoption of legal instruments against racism in Sweden. It describes how some types of racist acts have been criminalized, and how, in this process, the Swedish nation has been imagined as tolerant, open and diverse. More specifically, a genealogy is traced of such laws as the act on agitation against a national or ethnic group (Swedish hate-speech legislation), the act on unlawful discrimination and the penalty enhancement provision for hate crimes. Through a historical contextualization, the chapter shows how the emergence of these laws has been embedded in social dynamics related to the shame of racism. This process is thus presented as strongly ambiguous: enabling such laws to be enacted, but often including a denial of racism. This historical overview reveals how the process of introducing laws against racism in Sweden followed international trends and shifts, at the same time as it underlines the specificities of the Swedish case, including the history of the notion of ‘race’ in Sweden.
