‘Whether you drown in 90 or 9 meters of water…’: racialization and homeplace-making in a Danish suburban high school

This ethnographic study examines resistance and belonging among students of color at a predominantly white Danish suburban high school. Focusing on their congregation around a couch in the school’s racially divided cafeteria, this study challenges political discourses that frame students of color communities as self-segregationist. Using spatial tour interviews and ethnographic observations, this paper brings nuance to student resistance, highlighting everyday practices of community building as critical inquiry into institutional practices. The couch in the cafeteria is a symbolic site of belonging and support in which students of color articulate the operationalization of race and whiteness at school. Central to this analysis is the concept of homeplace, which frames the couch as a locus of relationality and communal production of knowledge. The paper underscores the students’ agency in critiquing structural racism in education, offering insights into the limitations of institutional practices, thus contributing to knowledge of inclusive school spaces from students’ perspectives.