Creepy-ass cracker in post-racial America: Don West’s examination of Rachel Jeantel in the George Zimmerman murder trial

Tyanna Slobe

doi:10.1515/text-2016-0026

Artikel

Creepy-ass cracker in post-racial America: Don West’s examination of Rachel Jeantel in the George Zimmerman murder trial

Tyanna Slobe
Tyanna Slobe is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles. As a Linguistic Anthropologist, her research interests include intersections of language and identity, socioeconomic mobility, gender, embodiment, and media. She conducts fieldwork in Santiago, Chile.

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 24. August 2016

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Abstract

This article examines interactions between defense attorney Don West and witness Rachel Jeantel in the 2013 State of Florida v. George Zimmerman trial following the murder of Trayvon Martin. The focus of analysis is how the defense constitutes the term creepy-ass cracker as evidence of violence and aggression on behalf of Trayvon Martin. Their argument is located within an ideological framework of a post-racial American society wherein the defense claims colorblindness (Bonilla-Silva 2014) for their client George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin’s observation of Zimmerman’s whiteness, as indexed by the word cracker, is positioned as evidence of a culture and an individual with inherently violent, racially motivated intentions. The article examines interactional moments during the defense’s questioning of Rachel Jeantel wherein creepy-ass cracker is positioned as immoral within a post-racial ideological framework, and evidence of racism toward white people. Don West’s use of pauses, hyper-articulated Standard American English, and emblematic deictic terms discursively and linguistically segregate Martin’s and Jeantel’s community from the hegemonic white practices of the courtroom. West’s attempts to assert symbolic control over the semantic meaning of creepy-ass cracker reflect the relative unmarkedness of Standard American English and whiteness in contemporary United States judicial systems and society.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis; George Zimmerman trial; legal discourse; post-racial ideology; race and racism; Standard American English (SAE); African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

About the author

Tyanna Slobe

Tyanna Slobe is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles. As a Linguistic Anthropologist, her research interests include intersections of language and identity, socioeconomic mobility, gender, embodiment, and media. She conducts fieldwork in Santiago, Chile.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Kira Hall, John Rickford, Norma Mendoza-Denton, Candy Goodwin, and Laura Michaelis for commentary, support, and encouragement throughout the process of writing this article. I am also grateful to Srikant Sarangi and my anonymous reviewers for valuable feedback, and to Devin Bunten, Evan Coles-Harris, Jonnia Torres, and Irina Wagner for editing advice.

Appendix: transcription conventions

?: rising intonation
underline: stress, increased amplitude
(.): pause shorter than 0.5 seconds
(1.0): pause greater than 0.5 seconds, measured in Praat
<words>: non-vocal noise or transcriber comment
{words}: stretch of talk over which transcriber comment applies
[IPA]: phonetic transcription
[: overlapping speech
[t^h]: t-release

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Published Online: 2016-8-24

Published in Print: 2016-9-1

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Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel

critical discourse analysis; George Zimmerman trial; legal discourse; post-racial ideology; race and racism; Standard American English (SAE); African American Vernacular English (AAVE)