Racial pejoratives and framing
Dec. 8th, 2005 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melanomanThis post is an academic investigation into how framing works with respect to racial pejoratives. In particular, I'm interested in exploring the boundaries of when a racial term draws in other racial ideas versus when it stands alone. By the very nature of this discussion, some offensive terms will get examined --- so offensive that I feel the need to make a disclaimer that I do not condone the use of these terms and that I am committed to the elimination of racism to the extent that this is possible. I suspect that this post will be too technical to be of much practical use in fighting racism, but I'd be thrilled to be proved wrong on that point.
The post was inspired by a stoneself post on the meaning of the term "white trash." The term "white trash" started out as a pejorative term coined by 19th century black americans to identify a radial group off the category "white." The term at once associated the identified group with "white" (i.e. they had white skin) but also differentiated them from the prototypical "white." The modern term is still a radial term off the "white" group, though the exact distinction being made has changed somewhat and the speaker base has broadened to include non-black speaker. In both cases the differentiation is pejorative and involves behavioral, social, and economic factors. The specifics of the distinguishing factors are beyond the scope of this paper, except for their pejorative nature.
Radial terms of this sort exclude the newly identified group from the original one. The naive definition of "white" --- a person with relatively low melanin content in their skin with caucasian ancestry --- would include "white trash" as "white," but the usage of this term focuses much more on the distinction than the similarity. More simply, when a person is called "white trash" the emphasis is that this person does not fit the prototypical image the speaker has of white people.
All pejoratives, by their nature, make a negative judgment against an identified individual or group. A second distinction can be drawn between pejoratives that make a judgment and pejoratives that express a prejudice.
An example of a pejorative that makes a judgment about an individual would be the term "jerk." When someone calls a person a "jerk" the emphasis is directly on the quality and/or behavior of that person and doesn't much consider the association of that person with anyone else. Words of this type range from very mild terms like "slacker" to vulgar ones like "asshole." Some are very specific about what sort of judgment is being made, such as "slacker" referring to work ethic, while others are much more generic.
The group-based pejoratives and racial pejoratives in particular typically emphasize prejudices about a group rather than make a specific judgment about an individual. Contrast the term "scab" (a pejorative referring to a person who works in spite of declared strike) with the the term "wop" (a vulgar pejorative referring to Italians and people of Italian descent). The former term emphasizes a particular behavior and derives it power from the hatred of that behavior and its effect on the lives of the union workers whose negotiation tactic is being undermined. The latter term derives all its meaning and force from prejudice.
Some terms function both ways, such as the term "nag." The term definitely focuses on a particular behavior, namely excessive repetition of instruction or criticism, but it also associates with attitudes about women and draws on those attitudes as part of its meaning. This is why it is awkward or humorous to refer to the same behavior in a male as "nagging." As that humorous usage becomes more common, the humor starts to fade and the meaning of the term starts to change so that the association with female stereotypes is weakened, so we can imagine a time in the future when "nag" might become a gender-neutral term referring only to the behavior and not the prejudice. This certainly hasn't happened yet.
Context always allows a term from one class to be used as if it were from the other, as in the vulgar example "What is the difference between a black man and a nigger?" By taking the form of a judgment-based pejorative, the speaker, at least nominally, is making specific judgments about individuals, even though the extremely vulgar term "nigger" draws all of its power from racial stereotypes. Whether the question is asked sincerely by someone who thinks of "nigger" as a radial category within blacks or insincerely by someone who just want to refer to his or her prejudice with the pretense of fairness, the word still draws heavily on a particular set of assumptions about a group of people to derive its meaning.
The term "white trash" works much the same way. The exact meaning is hard to pin down because it varies with the particular prejudices of the group that uses it. This raises a question about how much of the set of prejudices is drawn into the discussion when a racially charged term is used. This was the topic I initially wanted to address, but I've run short of time laying the groundwork, so I'll have to leave that to a PART II of this post later on.
The post was inspired by a stoneself post on the meaning of the term "white trash." The term "white trash" started out as a pejorative term coined by 19th century black americans to identify a radial group off the category "white." The term at once associated the identified group with "white" (i.e. they had white skin) but also differentiated them from the prototypical "white." The modern term is still a radial term off the "white" group, though the exact distinction being made has changed somewhat and the speaker base has broadened to include non-black speaker. In both cases the differentiation is pejorative and involves behavioral, social, and economic factors. The specifics of the distinguishing factors are beyond the scope of this paper, except for their pejorative nature.
Radial terms of this sort exclude the newly identified group from the original one. The naive definition of "white" --- a person with relatively low melanin content in their skin with caucasian ancestry --- would include "white trash" as "white," but the usage of this term focuses much more on the distinction than the similarity. More simply, when a person is called "white trash" the emphasis is that this person does not fit the prototypical image the speaker has of white people.
All pejoratives, by their nature, make a negative judgment against an identified individual or group. A second distinction can be drawn between pejoratives that make a judgment and pejoratives that express a prejudice.
An example of a pejorative that makes a judgment about an individual would be the term "jerk." When someone calls a person a "jerk" the emphasis is directly on the quality and/or behavior of that person and doesn't much consider the association of that person with anyone else. Words of this type range from very mild terms like "slacker" to vulgar ones like "asshole." Some are very specific about what sort of judgment is being made, such as "slacker" referring to work ethic, while others are much more generic.
The group-based pejoratives and racial pejoratives in particular typically emphasize prejudices about a group rather than make a specific judgment about an individual. Contrast the term "scab" (a pejorative referring to a person who works in spite of declared strike) with the the term "wop" (a vulgar pejorative referring to Italians and people of Italian descent). The former term emphasizes a particular behavior and derives it power from the hatred of that behavior and its effect on the lives of the union workers whose negotiation tactic is being undermined. The latter term derives all its meaning and force from prejudice.
Some terms function both ways, such as the term "nag." The term definitely focuses on a particular behavior, namely excessive repetition of instruction or criticism, but it also associates with attitudes about women and draws on those attitudes as part of its meaning. This is why it is awkward or humorous to refer to the same behavior in a male as "nagging." As that humorous usage becomes more common, the humor starts to fade and the meaning of the term starts to change so that the association with female stereotypes is weakened, so we can imagine a time in the future when "nag" might become a gender-neutral term referring only to the behavior and not the prejudice. This certainly hasn't happened yet.
Context always allows a term from one class to be used as if it were from the other, as in the vulgar example "What is the difference between a black man and a nigger?" By taking the form of a judgment-based pejorative, the speaker, at least nominally, is making specific judgments about individuals, even though the extremely vulgar term "nigger" draws all of its power from racial stereotypes. Whether the question is asked sincerely by someone who thinks of "nigger" as a radial category within blacks or insincerely by someone who just want to refer to his or her prejudice with the pretense of fairness, the word still draws heavily on a particular set of assumptions about a group of people to derive its meaning.
The term "white trash" works much the same way. The exact meaning is hard to pin down because it varies with the particular prejudices of the group that uses it. This raises a question about how much of the set of prejudices is drawn into the discussion when a racially charged term is used. This was the topic I initially wanted to address, but I've run short of time laying the groundwork, so I'll have to leave that to a PART II of this post later on.
