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Chapter 2. Racist discourses of discrimination and assimilation in an antiracist corpus

  • Rania Karachaliou , Vasia Tsami , Alexis Lazanas and Argiris Archakis
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Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism
This chapter is in the book Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism

Abstract

Racist views against migrants are not only disseminated via hate speech, which overtly demonizes the ‘foreigners’, but also via antiracist discourse, which, although designed to fight racism, may end up reproducing inequalities. This ambiguity is captured in the concept of liquid racism (Weaver 2016). To examine liquid racism in Greek public discourse, we have compiled an antiracist corpus (around 501.000 words). The aim of this chapter is to show how this corpus was created and to explore how racist views infiltrate antiracist discourse. Adopting a critical perspective, and drawing on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (1994) and on the discursive practices of Reisigl and Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (2001), we detected in our corpus two main discourses connected to racism: discrimination and assimilation. Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis, we argue that antiracist discourse, which programmatically fights against racist views, usually ends up perpetuating racist intentions and views, covering and reproducing inequalities.

Abstract

Racist views against migrants are not only disseminated via hate speech, which overtly demonizes the ‘foreigners’, but also via antiracist discourse, which, although designed to fight racism, may end up reproducing inequalities. This ambiguity is captured in the concept of liquid racism (Weaver 2016). To examine liquid racism in Greek public discourse, we have compiled an antiracist corpus (around 501.000 words). The aim of this chapter is to show how this corpus was created and to explore how racist views infiltrate antiracist discourse. Adopting a critical perspective, and drawing on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (1994) and on the discursive practices of Reisigl and Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (2001), we detected in our corpus two main discourses connected to racism: discrimination and assimilation. Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis, we argue that antiracist discourse, which programmatically fights against racist views, usually ends up perpetuating racist intentions and views, covering and reproducing inequalities.

Chapters in this book

  1. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Chapter 1. Antiracist and racist discourse as antagonistic and overlapping 1
  4. Chapter 2. Racist discourses of discrimination and assimilation in an antiracist corpus 41
  5. Chapter 3. Normalizing assimilation in antiracist (con)texts and (re)producing liquid racism 71
  6. Chapter 4. What culture? 93
  7. Chapter 5. Liquid racism, metaphor and the visual modality 118
  8. Chapter 6. Migrant voices in ‘antiracist’ video clips in Greece 143
  9. Chapter 7. “The EU gave us a new beginning” 181
  10. Chapter 8. “Wouldn’t it be better for me to earn my own money and pay taxes?” 202
  11. Chapter 9. A migrant’s public apology as an instance of internalized racism 225
  12. Chapter 10. Racist and antiracist discourse in Greek migrant/refugee jokes 253
  13. Chapter 11. Epilogue 277
  14. Notes on contributors 283
  15. Name index 289
  16. Subject index 293
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.341.02kar

Chapters in this book

  1. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Chapter 1. Antiracist and racist discourse as antagonistic and overlapping 1
  4. Chapter 2. Racist discourses of discrimination and assimilation in an antiracist corpus 41
  5. Chapter 3. Normalizing assimilation in antiracist (con)texts and (re)producing liquid racism 71
  6. Chapter 4. What culture? 93
  7. Chapter 5. Liquid racism, metaphor and the visual modality 118
  8. Chapter 6. Migrant voices in ‘antiracist’ video clips in Greece 143
  9. Chapter 7. “The EU gave us a new beginning” 181
  10. Chapter 8. “Wouldn’t it be better for me to earn my own money and pay taxes?” 202
  11. Chapter 9. A migrant’s public apology as an instance of internalized racism 225
  12. Chapter 10. Racist and antiracist discourse in Greek migrant/refugee jokes 253
  13. Chapter 11. Epilogue 277
  14. Notes on contributors 283
  15. Name index 289
  16. Subject index 293
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