Virtue Signaling and the Linguistic Repertoire of Anti-Blackness

"Or, "I Would Have Voted for Obama for a Third Term

Bibliographic Data

ID2286331
AuthorsDeandre Miles‐hercule (0000-0002-2280-876X, University of California, Santa Barbara), Jamaal Muwwakkil (0000-0001-7323-0999, University of California, Santa Barbara)
Year2021
Volume31
Issue2
Pages267-270
Publication date2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Linguistic Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1055-1360 • E-ISSN: 1548-1395
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jola.12320
OpenAlexW3199941630
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited17

Increasing commodification of progressive language in public discourse over the past four decades has resulted in users' indexical alignment with anti-racist politics becoming unmoored from expectations of legitimate action toward dismantling white supremacy. In this essay, we describe how this process is enacted through virtue signaling-highlighting one's morality through the use of language and other signs that invoke progressive sociopolitical values-and the ways it mobilizes the linguistic repertoire of anti-Blackness. Theorizing this behavior provides a framework to locate and confront the mechanisms that maintain white supremacy and the actors who align themselves with it

Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy