"...when I was a young lad I had a golly*** and I am not racist, even the lads down the plantation thought it was fun": A negotiation of prejudice and racism
Citation
(2016) "...when I was a young lad I had a golly*** and I am not racist, even the lads down the plantation thought it was fun": A negotiation of prejudice and racism, no. 32.
Abstract
In everyday interactions, people go to great lengths to avoid being attributed as prejudiced and
racist. Previous writers have argued that this is a result of a cultural 'norm against prejudice'
and have shown how speakers orient to the norm. However new research has argued that this
norm is far from straight forward, and that there is a lack of understanding of how lay people do
define and utilise attributions of prejudice and racism in everyday talk . This study examines
how, in the specific context of an online forum discussion surrounding three teenagers dressing
as Golliwogs in the local parade of a rural Scottish community, contributors orient to and deal
with potential attributions of prejudice and racism, and how they negotiate in that context what
is to count as prejudiced/racist. Analysis shows that contributors do not mention prejudice and
make few references to racism/racists. Issues of lay definitions of prejudice/racism are therefore
not made explicit notwithstanding that contributors appear to be orienting to potential
ascriptions of prejudice and / or racism. Future research is needed to look at further
negotiations surrounding prejudice and racism in various specific contexts, in order to build a
greater understanding of how prejudice and racism are actually negotiated in everyday talk in
lay terms.