08/09/2026
I’m a cultural communicator, and I’m passionate about sharing Greenland in Denmark. But why is it actually so important?
Right now, I’m a host mum to a Greenlandic girl attending a Danish boarding school. She has experienced racist comments from other young people – comments that were later explained with: “It was just a joke.”
But since when did that become an excuse?
I went to a Danish boarding school myself in 2004, and even back then, Greenlandic young people could be shouted at or spoken to in a degrading way because of where they came from.
That we still experience this in 2026 is something I think we need to stop and reflect on.
And this is not only about Greenland. It is about all the people living in Denmark who have roots somewhere else in the world. People with different skin colours, languages, religions, cultures and histories.
We don’t know what children hear at home. We don’t know what attitudes they encounter around the dinner table. But school is a place where we can give them something else: knowledge, perspectives and the tools to understand people they may not otherwise meet.
We shouldn’t expect children and young people to automatically know where the line is. We need to teach them.
We need to talk about what is okay to say. About the difference between humour and discrimination. And about how a “joke” can feel to the person on the receiving end.
That is why I believe cultural education should be a natural part of both primary schools and boarding schools – including when it comes to Greenland.
Not only as history, geography or something exotic far up north. But as a natural part of the Denmark we live in.
This is also why I give talks, workshops and presentations about Greenland to children, young people and adults.
Because I believe that meeting a person can often open a door that a textbook cannot.
Perhaps preventing racism begins in the classroom. In the conversation. In meeting the other.
We speak to one another with respect. No matter where we come from.
