Contemporary Racist Discourse: Taboos Against Racism and Racist Accusations

Abstract

During the last twenty years there has been a burgeoning literature on the language of contemporary racism in Western liberal democracies such as Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Europe and the United States. Much of this literature has been informed by discursive psychology, which not only analyses everyday talk and conversation, but also formal institutional talk that can be found in parliamentary debates, political speeches and newspaper articles. One of the most pervasive features of contemporary racist discourse is the denial of prejudice. Increasing social taboos against openly expressing racist sentiments have led to the development of discursive strategies that present negative views of outgroups as reasonable and justified, while at the same time protecting the speaker from charges of racism and prejudice. This research has demonstrated the flexible, contradictory and ambivalent nature of contemporary racist discourse, which is organized by common and recurring tropes used by majority group members to justify and rationalize existing social inequities between groups. These justifications are premised largely on the flexible and rhetorical use of liberal and egalitarian commonplaces that draw on principles of freedom, fairness, and individual rights.