Reverse hate speech, pragmatics, and the authority problem

Tools

Brown, Alexander (2024) Reverse hate speech, pragmatics, and the authority problem. Philosophy and Social Criticism. ISSN 0191-4537

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Applying speech act theory to the phenomenon of hate speech, some philosophers seek to explain how even ordinary people can obtain the capacity, power, or authority to oppress, subordinate, or marginalise the targets of their verbal attacks. Such explanations are answers to what is called the authority problem. However, hitherto these philosophers have focused exclusively on standard examples of racist speech in which members of historically oppressor groups verbally attack members of oppressed groups. In this paper, I address the (or an) authority problem in relation to examples of reverse hate speech, where members of historically oppressed groups verbally attack members of oppressor groups. I critically examine two conventional answers to the authority problem: the first is that even ordinary people can successfully perform prototypical hate speech acts by virtue of being participants in norm-governed social practices of racism; the second is that such people can do so by virtue of the silence of bystanders granting them licensed authority. I argue these conventional answers have lesser explanatory heft as applied to examples of reverse hate speech. I then introduce and defend a third answer to the authority problem, which I believe can adequately account for examples of both standard and reverse hate speech, namely the possession of informal social authority.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy and Area Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Policy & Politics Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies
Related URLs:	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	21 Dec 2024 01:11
Last Modified:	21 Dec 2024 01:11
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98055
DOI:	10.1177/01914537241308129

Actions (login required)

View Item