Temporal Racism and the Invisibilization of Work: or Why Some Can Eat Ice Cream with their Kids While Others Cannot

Through the concepts of temporal racism and racial capitalism, this article explores how time is racialized in Swedish unemployment projects, shaping a racialized and gendered division of labor. The article identifies three forms of temporal racism practices: temporal racism through the invisibilization of work, through waiting, and through wasting. I argue that these practices of temporal racism create diverse forms of labor and are therefore important factors in the production and reproduction of racial capitalism. Temporal racism deprives those defined as ‘foreign-born unemployed women’ of time for joy, pleasure, community, and family; instead, it ensures that their time is used to transform them into racialized workers, moving between precarious employment and surplus populations.