Representations of Ethnicity

Language can create and shape representations around us, and the ways in which language represents ethnicity is a particularly interesting case in point. This area is of concern because many words used to label different ethnic groups have not been chosen by the groups themselves, but by others who have often been hostile or dismissive of the people labelled by these terms.

The most extreme examples of racial epithets are rarely found in the mainstream media and tend to be confined to the more extreme ends of social media.

However, representations of ethnicity can be made through a more subtle and some might say insidious use of language. Take the following two examples from newspaper reports about crime.

  1. The suspect is described as of medium build, with brown hair and wearing dark blue jogging bottoms and a dark hooded top.

  2. The suspect is described as Asian, of medium build, with brown hair and wearing dark blue jogging bottoms and a dark hooded top.

The second example refers explicitly to the suspect's ethnicity, and by implication the first extract assumes that the suspect's ethnicity is white, because it is not marked. Highlighting ethnicity in one case and not another creates a danger that certain ethnic groups appear to be singled out and associated with crime. This becomes more dangerous and politically charged when a whole community is damned for the actions of a few of its members. While the perpetrators of sexual abuse in the widely reported Rotherham case were described as 'mainly of Pakistani origin', no mention of ethnicity was made in relation to the numerous (white) perpetrators of sexual abuse in the Yewtree-cases (associated with Jimmy Savile)

There is also an argument that, as with gender, the English language itself has some historically entrenched double standards connected to ethnicity, with positive associations for 'white' and negative ones for 'black'. For example, a 'white lie' is not a very bad one; however, one of the worst financial crashes in recent history was termed 'Black Wednesday' (in 1992).

The banner on the right (black wash) celebrates the resounding victory of the West Indies cricket team over England in the 1984 test series by reversing the connotations of 'black' and 'white':