Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 30:4 (2020) ► pp.485–508

Confronting blackface

Stancetaking in the Dutch Black Pete debate

ORCID logo | University of Jyväskylä
Recently, the Netherlands witnessed an agitated discussion over Black Pete, a blackface character associated with the Saint Nicholas festival. This paper analyzes a televised panel interview discussing a possible court ban of public Nicholas festivities, and demonstrates that participants not only disagree over the racist nature of the blackface character but also over the terms of the debate itself. Drawing on recent sociolinguistic work on stancetaking, it traces how panelists ‘laminate’ the interview’s participation framework by embedding their assessments of Black Pete in contrasting dialogical fields. Their stancetaking evokes opposing trajectories of earlier interactions and conjures up discursive complexes of identity/belonging that entail discrepant judgments over the acceptability of criticism. The extent to which a stance makes explicit the projected field’s phenomenal content, it is argued, reflects the relative (in)visibility of hegemonic we-ness.
Keywords: Black Pete, stance, metastancing, metapragmatic regimentation, panel interview, visibility, hegemony
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Stancetaking beyond the local
  • 3.Negotiating constituency
  • 4.Subsequent metastancing
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 22 November 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18039.dho
References (44)
References
Angermuller, Johannes. 2011. “From the Many Voices to the Subject Positions in Anti-Globalization Discourse.” Journal of Pragmatics 431: 2992–3000. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blakely, Allison. 2001. Blacks in the Dutch World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan, and Jef Verscheuren. 1998. Debating Diversity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Boer, Eugenie. 2014. “Sint-Nicolaas, een levende legende.” In Sinterklaas verklaard, ed. by Willem Knoops, Madelon Pieper, and Eugenie Boer, 11–32. Amsterdam: SWP.Google Scholar
Brienen, Rebecca. 2014. “Types and Stereotypes: Zwarte Piet and His Early Modern Sources.” In Dutch Racism, ed. by Philomena Essed and Isabel Hoving, 179–200. Amsterdam: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brighenti, Andrea. 2007. “Visibility: A Category for the Social Sciences.” Current Sociology 55 (3): 323–342. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clayman, Steven, and John Heritage. 2002. The News Interview. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clift, Rebecca. 1999. “Irony in Conversation.” Language in Society 28 (4): 523–553. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coupland, Justine, and Nikolas Coupland. 2009. “Attributing Stance in Discourses of Body Shape and Weight Loss.” In Stance, ed. by Alexandra Jaffe, 227–249. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Damari, Rebecca. 2010. “Intertextual Stancetaking and the Local Negotiation of Cultural Identities by a Binational Couple.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 14 (5): 609–629. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cillia, Rudolf, Martin Reisigl, and Ruth Wodak. 1999. “The Discursive Construction of National Identities.” Discourse and Society 10 (2): 149–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, John. 2007. “The Stance Triangle.” In Stancetaking in Discourse, ed. by Robert Englebretson, 139–182. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Derek. 2003. “Analyzing Racial Discourse: The Discursive Psychology of Mind-World Relationships.” In Analyzing Race Talk, ed. by Harry van den Berg, Margaret Wetherell, and Hanneke Houtkoop-Steenstra, 31–48. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Englebretson, Robert (ed.). 2007. Stancetaking in Discourse. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Essed, Philomena. 1997. “Racial Intimidation: Socio-political Implications of the Usage of racist Slurs.” In The Language and Politics of Exclusion, ed. by Stephen Riggins (ed.), 131–152. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Essed, Philomena, and Isabel Hoving (eds.). 2014. Dutch Racism. Amsterdam: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1981. “Footing.” In: Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press.Google Scholar
Helsloot, John. 2005. “De strijd om Zwarte Piet.” In Veranderingen van het alledaagse 1950–2000, ed. by Isabel Hoving, Hester Dibbits and Marlou Schrover, 398–402. Den Haag: Sdu.Google Scholar
. 2008. “De ambivalente boodschap van de eerste ‘Zwarte Piet’ (1850).” In De kleine Olympus, ed. by Eveline Doelman and John Helsloot, 94–117. Amsterdam: Knaw.Google Scholar
. 2012. “Zwarte Piet and Cultural Aphasia in the Netherlands.” Quotidian 3 (1): 1–20.Google Scholar
. 2014. “Is Zwarte Piet uit te leggen?” In Sinterklaas verklaard, ed. by Willem Knoops, Madelon Pieper, and Eugenie Boer, 77–85. Amsterdam: SWP.Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 2012. “The Epistemic Engine: Sequence Organization and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (1): 30–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hilhorst, Sacha, and Joke Hermes. 2015. “‘We Have Given Up So Much’: Passion and Denial in the Dutch Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) Controversy.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 19 (3):218–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Irvine, Judith. 1996. “Shadow Conversations: The Indeterminacy of Participant Roles.” In Natural Histories of Discourse, ed. by Michael Silverstein and Greg Urban, 131–159. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
. 2009. “How Mr. Taylor Lost His Footing: Stance in a Colonial Encounter.” In Stance, ed. by Alexandra Jaffe, 53–71. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaffe, Alexandra (ed). 2009. Stance. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaworski, Adam, and Crispin Thurlow. 2009. “Taking an Elitist Stance.” In Stance, ed. by Alexandra Jaffe, 195–226. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 1990. “List Construction as a Task and Resource.” In Interaction Competence, ed. by George Psathas, 63–92. Washington: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Kiesling, Scott. 2011. “Stance in Context: Affect, Alignment, and Investment in the Analysis of Stancetaking.” Presented at iMean Conference, 15 April 2011. UWE, Bristol.
Knoops, Willem, Madelon Pieper, and Eugenie Boer (eds.). 2014. Sinterklaas verklaard. Amsterdam: SWP.Google Scholar
Kockelman, Paul. 2004. “Stance and Subjectivity.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14 (2): 127–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. “Review of Alexandra Jaffe (ed.), Stance.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 22 (2): E105–E108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lempert, Michael. 2009. “On ‘flip-flopping’: Branded Stance-taking in U.S. Electoral Politics.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 131: 223–248. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leudar, Ivan, and Jiří Nekvapil. 1998. “On the Emergence of Political Identity in Czech Mass Media: The Case of the Democratic Party of Sudetenland.” Czech Sociological Review 61: 43–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pijl, Yvon van der, and Karina Goulordava. 2014. “Black Pete, “Smug Ignorance,” and the Value of the Black Body in Postcolonial Netherlands.” New West Indian Guide 88 (3/4): 262–291. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1984. “Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments.” In Structures of Social Action, ed. by John Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage, 57–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rauniomaa, Mirka. 2003. “Stance Accretion.” Unpublished manuscript, UCSB.Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak. 2005. Discourse and Discrimination. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reyes, Angela. 2011. “‘Racist!’ Metapragmatic Regimentation of Racist Discourse by Asian American Youth.” Discourse and Society 22 (4): 458–473. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, Michael. 1993. “Meta pragmatic discourse and meta pragmatic function.” In Reflexive Language, ed. by John Lucy, 33–58. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2003. “Indexical Order and the Dialectics of Sociolinguistic Life.” Language and Communication 23 (3/4): 193–230. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stockburger, Inge. 2015. “Stancetaking and the Joint Construction of Zine Producer Identities in a Research Interview.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 19 (2): 22–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vandergriff, Ilona. 2012. “Taking a Stance on Stance: Metastancing as Legitimation.” Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines 6 (1): 53–75.Google Scholar
Zienkowski, Jan. 2017. “Re-articulating Critical Awareness about Racism in Public Discourse.” In Evaluation in Media Discourse, ed. by Ruth Breeze and Inés Olza, 227–265. Frankfurt: Lang.Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Temmerman, Martina & Belinda Tournet
2024. The ‘Black Pete’ debate in Flemish newspapers: from conflict to moderation. Critical Discourse Studies ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Yang, Yiran, Rosanneke A. G. Emmen, Ymke de Bruijn & Judi Mesman
2023. Crisis and bias: Exploring ethnic prejudice among Chinese‐Dutch children before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Infant and Child Development 32:6 DOI logo
De Clerck, Amber & Kris Rutten
2022. Unpacking Cultural Logics: A Rhetorical Listening Analysis of the Public Black Pete Debate in Flanders. Critical Arts 36:1-2 ► pp. 53 ff. DOI logo
De Clerck, Amber & Kris Rutten
2024. RHETORICAL LISTENING AS A PEDAGOGICAL TOOL IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING THE BLACK PETE DEBATE IN FLANDERS. International Journal of Listening 38:3 ► pp. 216 ff. DOI logo
Silva, Daniel N. & Jacob L. Mey
2021.  Introduction. In The Pragmatics of Adaptability [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 319], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.