Article in:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict: Online-First Articles

“Diversity is a code word. And what it means is white genocide!”

The cinematic representation of neofascist rhetoric in four dramatic race-related films

| National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Although the language of extreme nationalism has been well-investigated, no studies have been concerned with the cinematic representation of racism. This article discusses the most prominent rhetorical strategies employed by neofascist characters in four race-related movies. Adopting a CDA perspective, it examines instances of hate speech targeted at minorities and identifies how immigrants and other social groups are constructed as antagonistic. Direct verbal attacks against minorities were found to be particularly humiliating due to the recurrent use of racial slurs, culture-specific stereotypes, directives and contemptuous remarks targeting the immigrants’ background. Deemed to possess an innate inclination to criminality, immigrants were presented as a threat to white rights, jobs and public safety. Modern multicultural environments, resembling dystopias, were characterised as the ideal places within which unlawfulness could thrive. The government was held responsible for abandoning the native population that was inflicted by ‘anti-white racism’. Finally, xenophobia and antisemitism intersected with gender-related bias.
Keywords: cinematic discourse, neofascist rhetoric, immigration, anti-Semitism, CDA
Published online: 25 May 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00060.bou
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