On “Generation Blindness”—The New Third Generation of Racially Minoritized Danish Youth in School

Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork in two schools in Greater Copenhagen, Denmark, among racially minoritized third-generation youth, this chapter examines the ways in which the relatively “new” generational position of the third-generation comes to matter in the way youth are—drawing on Luis Althusser’s concept of “interpellation” (Althusser, Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation). In Aradhana Sharma AG (ed) The anthropology of the state: A reader, vol. 9. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 86–98, 2006 [1970])—interpellated into pre-existing racially marginalized positions in school. I argue how the so-called “colour blindness” in the Danish primary and lower secondary school affects the teachers’ encounter with students with ethnic minority Danish descent, and how it comes to matter in new dynamics of minoritizing of the new third-generation youth. In doing so, I discuss what risks and potentials are associated with recognizing generational positions as particularly significant in understanding ethnic minoritized youth in school. The chapter thus sheds light on a relatively new, but essential diversity parameter amongst ethnic youth and discusses the implications of this in school encounters.