# Swedish Negroes...offensive?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 26, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880 "2012-03-26T21:22:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zach1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zach1)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/1 "2012-03-26T21:22:02Z")
Some friends and I watched an episode of Curb your Enthusiasm in which Larry says, “Like a black man from Sweden.” After laughing heartily, one of us mentioned the term “Swedish Negroes” and we wondered if it was offensive. I know it’s not PC, but is it a truly offensive term?
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/2 "2012-03-26T21:30:01Z")
Isn’t that what you call the black Swedish Fish candies?
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/3 "2012-03-26T22:15:08Z")
Just don’t use the term, “Swegroes.”
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### Author:  [@Zach1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zach1)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/4 "2012-03-26T22:22:51Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> Just don’t use the term, “Swegroes.”
Haha. Roger.
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### Author:  [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/5 "2012-03-26T22:27:59Z")
Probably. Swedish bros maybe not so much.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/6 "2012-03-26T22:30:43Z")
And don’t call them “African-American Swedes”, unless they did emigrate from the United States.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/7 "2012-03-26T22:31:37Z")
I actually know a black man, an American citizen who was born in Sweden. He gets lots of (good-natured!) laughs out of calling himself a Swedish-American.
I don’t think it’s offensive (especially if not intended that way.) It’s simply making note of a statistical rarity.
It’s said that the descendants of the Mayflower now include millions of Chinese and Indians, and probably large numbers of Egyptians, Israelis, Turks, etc. The stork doesn’t pay much attention to national boundaries!
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### Author:  [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/8 "2012-03-26T22:37:53Z")
I grew up in Sweden and would love to help, but need further info:
First off, offensive to whom? And where? In Sweden? In America? And do you mean the actual words “Swedish Negroe” (i.e., in English) or the Swedish equivalent?
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/9 "2012-03-26T22:48:59Z")
I will note for the record that [Marcus Samuelsson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Samuelsson), winner of (among other things) Top Chef Masters, is a black man from Sweden.
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### Author:  [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/10 "2012-03-26T22:58:37Z")
I thought their second album was the best. The third and fourth just didn’t have the same edge.
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### Author:  [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/11 "2012-03-26T23:12:03Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#):
>
> I thought their second album was the best. The third and fourth just didn’t have the same edge.
You joke, but there was actually a Swedish punk band called [Stockholms Negrer](http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholms_Negrer) - “the Stockholm Negroes,” or “the Negroes of Stockholm” - back in the 80’s.
No word on which album was the best, though.
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### Author:  [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/12 "2012-03-26T23:20:02Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> I will note for the record that [Marcus Samuelsson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Samuelsson), winner of (among other things) Top Chef Masters, is a black man from Sweden.
As is [Eagle-Eye Cherry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle-Eye_Cherry), his sister [Neneh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neneh_Cherry), [Titiyo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titiyo), [Alice Bah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Bah), and the immortal [Henke Larsson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henke_Larsson). Oh and [Martin Dahlin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dahlin), of course, how could I forget.
Black Swedes really aren’t that uncommon, you guys.
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### Author:  [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/13 "2012-03-27T01:28:16Z")
> [@Steken](#):
>
> Black Swedes really aren’t that uncommon, you guys.
And also, [Blue Swede!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Swede)
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### Author:  [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/14 "2012-03-27T01:43:45Z")
About 15 years ago, I was at the Southeastern Conference track and field championships in Florida. I had my program, and was interested in where some of the foreign athletes were from. A female long jumper or triple jumper for one team was as black as you can get. Her name suggested West Africa, maybe Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, or some such place. So I check the program, and she was from Gothenburg, Sweden.
Huh, I thought, wasn’t expecting that. It is good to be surprised like that once in a while. Expectations don’t always match reality. A good lesson that should be reinforced at times.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/15 "2012-03-27T01:48:21Z")
Check out [Ida Ljungqvist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Ljungqvist).
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/16 "2012-03-27T02:07:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Check out [Ida Ljungqvist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Ljungqvist).
Nice Ljungs!
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### Author:  [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/17 "2012-03-27T03:33:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Check out [Ida Ljungqvist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Ljungqvist).
Damnit, Sweden! Why are you hogging all the trilingual Playmates who devote their time to charity?
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### Author:  [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/18 "2012-03-27T03:37:09Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#):
>
> I thought their second album was the best. The third and fourth just didn’t have the same edge.
I hear they’re working on a new one called Swiggaz4Life.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/19 "2012-03-27T05:38:03Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Nice Ljungs!
Ida qvist them.
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### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2012, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swedish-negroes-offensive/616880/20 "2012-03-27T06:28:21Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#):
>
> And also, [Blue Swede!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Swede)
Before we invented a word for “black” we used “blue” to describe that colour as well.
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