The subject of this study is prejudice, discrimination and persecution of Swedish Roma in a long-term perspective. It offers a historical analysis of the establishment of hegemonic views on Roma, counter-discourse and discursive shifts as reflected in local incidents and politics. Theoretically, the notion of antiziganism (anti-Gypsyism) is derived as a discursive formation, directed against the ”conceptual gypsy”: a historically constructed imago out of social, religious and racial prejudice that is being projected onto Roma and other persons. This perspective relates to social constructionist views on antiziganism as developed primarily by German and Dutch scholars (see Hamburger, Lucassen, Willems), which up to now have had virtually no influence in Swedish research.