Chapter 7
“The EU gave us a new beginning”
Liquid racism and affect in a curated migrant story
In this chapter, we trace subtle forms of racism, known as liquid racism (Weaver 2010), in a personal experience story of a migrant’s journey, curated as part
of a communication campaign about the European Union (EU). Our analysis of the story is based on the examination of its
structure (emergence), its production and reception (wholeness) and its curation
(embedding; De Fina 2020) in relation to tellers’ and
audiences’ affective positioning (Giaxoglou 2021a), that is, the
ways in which tellers position themselves and others affectively within the taleworld, the storyrealm, and broader
master-discourses. We trace liquid racism in the way the migrant’s experience is commodified and in the way his experience is
collectivized, promoting an exemplary image of a ‘good’ and ‘grateful’ migrant. The chapter contributes a critical
approach to storytelling that can prove useful in tracing liquid racism emerging from the production of ambiguous
affective positions in antiracist narrative texts.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Mediated storytelling and migration
- 3.Narratives as practices
- 4.The EU Protects campaign, data, research questions and methods
- 5.Analysis
- 5.1Emergence of the story “The journey of an asylum seeker”
- 5.2Wholeness: Multi-perspectivizing the story
- 5.3Embedding
- 6.Conclusion
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Notes
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References