This essay has combined a discourse analysis with a postcolonial theory to investigate how Sami and Romani people were portrayed in Swedish encyclopedias between the years 1885 – 1955. The period for the essay circle around the time where thoughts about race where strong in the Swedish society and the racial biology institutes where built. A lot of political laws were aimed at the groups Sami and Romani and this essay aims to see if the discrimination of these groups could be seen in the educational sphere that reached out to the people of Sweden at the time. The use of a discourse analysis helps to see how the power of language and use of specific words built up stereotypes in a specific discourse. The purpose of combining it with a postcolonial theory is to see in what way the language is used to portray the groups as “the others” from the norm society. 

The results shows that the encyclopedias at the period between 1885 – 1955 is highly influenced with racial thoughts where the groups are portrayed as underdeveloped to the main society with characteristics that is hugely different from the norm which are making them to “the others” compared to the normal.