Floyd Mayweather made racist and derogatory comments about his opponent, referring to him with terms like "yellow chump" and "midget". He also said he would make his opponent "make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice", using negative ethnic stereotypes. Such derogatory ethnic labels can denigrate, insult, and increase prejudice against the target's entire group. If left unchecked, they can activate negative stereotypes and even lead to acts of violence or genocide. Mayweather's comments constitute "hate language and bully language" that promotes discrimination and hostility.
1. A black boxer’s comment on his opponent: more than just a provocation The Language of Racism
2. “… biologically labelled traits… evaluated negatively…” (Reisigl & Wodak, 2001, p. 10) “social system of domination” (Van Dijk, 2005, pp.1-2) UNESCO defined racism as ‘anti-social beliefs and acts which are based on a fallacy that discriminatory inter-group relations are justifiable on biological grounds’ (World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. ) What is racism?
3. “I’m on vacation for about a year. As soon as we come off vacation, we’re going to cook that little yellow chump. We ain’t worried about that. So they ain’tgotta worry about me fighting a midget. Once I kick the midget’s a*s, I don’t want you all to jump on my di*k. So you all better get on the bandwagon now. Once I stomp the midget, I’ll make that mother f*cker make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice.” Full comment from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxvFXOlnPBk Mayweather’s comment on his opponent before the match.
8. “make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice” Derogatory Ethnic Label (DEL) -negative stereotypic beliefs -provoke violence or hostility from the target -ridicule -portray prejudice How about this?
9. Immediate Effects on the target -Denigrates the target as sub-human -Make the target feel rejection, dejection, anger, rage -Insults the target’s entire group Effects of DEL
10. The target’s group members who hear DEL used -increases prejudice -Prompts listeners to use those themselves -activate negative stereotypes Effects of DEL
11. What Mayweather used is “Hate language and bully language” (Harmon, M.R., & Wilson, M.J. 2006) Which can lead to genocide, or to violent act Conclusion
12. Dijk, T.A.V. (2005). Racism and discourse in Spain and Latin America. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Harmon, M.R., & Wilson, M.J. (2006). Beyond grammar: Language, power and the classroom. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erbaum Associates. Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2001). Discourse and discrimination: Rhetorics of racism and antisemitism. London: Routledge References
