TY - JOUR

T1 - Det var jo en anden tid: Klaus Rothsteins 'Den sorte mand' og anti-woke som politisk projekt

AU - Danbolt, Mathias

AU - Myong, Lene

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - In recent years, Black researchers and artists have worked on establishing critical studies in Blackness as a research field in Danish and Nordic academia. But Black and racially minoritized researchers are not alone in researching Blackness. In 2023, the white Danish literary critic Klaus Rothstein published Den sorte mand. Racisme, woke og hvidhed i dansk litteratur (The Black Man. Racism, woke and whiteness in Danish literature), which examines Blackness as a motif in Danish literature from the 18th century to the present. In this article, we analyze how concepts including anti-black racism, anti-racism and “wokeness” are operationalized in the study. We argue that Rothstein’s claim on the importance of “witnessing” – and thus reproducing – anti-black racism enables the construction of a white liberal non-racist position, characterized by a deep skepticism towards contemporary forms of anti-racism that are presented as both dangerous and destructive. We read Den sorte mand as part of a broader movement of political anti-wokeness, which has gained a strong foothold in the Nordic public sphere in recent years. The article shows that the normalization and intellectualization of anti-wokeness contributes to the delegitimization of research into Blackness and anti-racism, and works to reconfigure the tradition for normalizing and exonerating anti-black racism in a Nordic context.

AB - In recent years, Black researchers and artists have worked on establishing critical studies in Blackness as a research field in Danish and Nordic academia. But Black and racially minoritized researchers are not alone in researching Blackness. In 2023, the white Danish literary critic Klaus Rothstein published Den sorte mand. Racisme, woke og hvidhed i dansk litteratur (The Black Man. Racism, woke and whiteness in Danish literature), which examines Blackness as a motif in Danish literature from the 18th century to the present. In this article, we analyze how concepts including anti-black racism, anti-racism and “wokeness” are operationalized in the study. We argue that Rothstein’s claim on the importance of “witnessing” – and thus reproducing – anti-black racism enables the construction of a white liberal non-racist position, characterized by a deep skepticism towards contemporary forms of anti-racism that are presented as both dangerous and destructive. We read Den sorte mand as part of a broader movement of political anti-wokeness, which has gained a strong foothold in the Nordic public sphere in recent years. The article shows that the normalization and intellectualization of anti-wokeness contributes to the delegitimization of research into Blackness and anti-racism, and works to reconfigure the tradition for normalizing and exonerating anti-black racism in a Nordic context.

KW - Det Humanistiske Fakultet

KW - racisme

KW - antiracisme

KW - woke

KW - Klaus rothstein

KW - sorthed

KW - antisort racisme

KW - litteratur

KW - litteraturvidenskab

KW - kønsforskning

KW - hvidhed

KW - anti-woke

U2 - https://doi.org/10.18261/tfk.48.2.

DO - https://doi.org/10.18261/tfk.48.2.

M3 - Tidsskriftartikel

VL - 48

SP - 90

EP - 104

JO - Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning

JF - Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning

SN - 0809-6341

IS - 2

ER -