Asian slurs and stereotypes in the USA
A context-sensitive account of derogation and appropriation
Slurs such as chink and gook are linguistic expressions that are primarily used to derogate
certain group members for their descriptive attributes (such as their ethnicity) and are often considered the most offensive of
expressions. Recent work on the semantics and pragmatics of slurs has illuminated several important facts regarding their meaning
and use – including that slurs are commonly understood to felicitously apply towards some targets yet not others, that slurs are
among the most potentially offensive expressions afforded by natural language, and that slurs are often flexibly employed and of
potential use, not only derogatorily to convey offense towards out-group members, but also non-derogatorily to convey affiliation
with in-group members or to diminish the derogatory force that the slur is typically understood to carry. Nonetheless, prior
scholarship has unfortunately restricted itself primarily to considerations of slurs that typically target members of other
groups. Since no account of slurs for Asian-Americans has so far been proposed, the aim of this article is therefore to provide
the first systematic and empirically informed analysis of slurs for Asian-Americans that accounts for both their derogatory and
appropriative (non-derogatory) use.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Asian-American slurs
- 3.Face threatening acts and the paradigmatic derogatory use of slurs
- 4.Slurs, typical targets, and stereotypical attributes
- 5.Family resemblance concepts, category membership, and the pragmatics of slur ascription
- 6.Appropriation and the non-derogatory use of Asian slurs
- 7.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
-
References
References
Abad-Santos, Alexander
2013 ‘Olympus has fallen’ brings out the anti-Asian slurs from its audience.
Wire 1 April.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Anderson, Elijah
1999 Code of the Street. New York: Norton.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Anderson, Luvell and Ernie Lepore
2013 Slurring words.
Nous 471, 25–48.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Asian-American Journalists Association
2012 Asian-American Journalists Association Handbook to Covering Asian-America. San Francisco: Asian-American Journalists Association.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bartlett, Jamie, Jeremy Reffin, Noelle Rumball, and Sarah Williamson
2014 Anti-social media.
Demos 1–51.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
BBC
2011 Eight US troops charged over death of Pte Danny Chen.
BBC News 21 December.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Beaton, Mary, and Hannah Washington
2014 Slurs and the indexical field: The pejoration and reclamation of favelado ‘slum-dweller’.
Language Sciences.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bianchi, Claudia
2014 Slurs and appropriation.
Journal of Pragmatics 661, 35–44.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bicchieri, Cristina, and Ryan Muldoon
2014 Social norms.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring Edition.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Breitbart London
2014 BBC faces £1 million legal claim over Clarkson ‘racist’ comment.
Breitbart London 29 March.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson
1978 Universals in language usage. In
Esther Goody (ed.),
Questions and Politeness. pp. 56–310. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cass, Connie, and Jennifer Agiesta
2011 Young people see online slurs as just joking, poll shows.
The Huffington Post 20 September.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
CBS
2013 N.J. woman files $1 million lawsuit claiming CVS worker used Asian slur on receipt.
CBS New York 18 April.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chow, Kat
2013 Dueling stereotypes: Bad Asian drivers, good at everything.
NPR 11 July.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chu, Judy
2012 Military hazing has got to stop.
The New York Times 3 August.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Conley, Thomas
2010 Toward a Rhetoric of Insult. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cooper, Brittney
2014 In support of #CancelColbert.
Salon 28 March.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croom, Adam
2008 Racial epithets: What we say and mean by them.
Dialogue 511: 34–45.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croom, Adam
2011 Slurs.
Language Sciences 331: 343–358.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croom, Adam
2013 How to do things with slurs: Studies in the way of derogatory words.
Language and Communication 331: 177–204.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croom, Adam
2014 The semantics of slurs: A refutation of pure expressivism.
Language Sciences 411: 227–242.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croom, Adam
2015 Slurs, stereotypes, and in-equality: A critical review of “How Epithets and Stereotypes are Racially Unequal”.
Language Sciences 521: 134–154.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croom, Adam
2014c Spanish slurs and stereotypes for Mexican-Americans in the USA: A context-sensitive account of derogation and appropriation.
Sociocultural Pragmatics 21: 1–35.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Culpeper, Jonathan
1996 Towards an anatomy of impoliteness.
Journal of Pragmatics 251: 349–367.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cummings, Bruce
2010 The Korean War. New York: Random House.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cupkovic, Gordana
2014 Diachronic variations of slurs and levels of derogation: On some regional, ethnic and racial slurs in Croatian.
Language Sciences.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Davis, Carlton
2011 Chinky, the Chinaman.
Psychology Today 30 June.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Donahue, Bill
2013 Trademark board won’t register ‘Slants’ band name.
Law 360 30 September.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Espiritu, Yen
2003 Home Bound. Berkeley: California University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fei, Deanna
2012 ESPN’s ‘chink’ headline is no laughing matter.
New York Daily News 23 February.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Filmer, Denise
2012 The ‘gook’ goes ‘gay’.
InTRAlinea 141: 1829.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fitten, Ronald
1993 Fighting words.
The Seattle Times 19 March.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fodor, Jerry, Merrill Garrett, Edward Walker, and Cornelia Parkes
1980 Against definitions.
Cognition 81: 263–367.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Galinsky, Adam, Cynthia Wang, Jennifer Whitson, Eric Anicich, Kurt Hugenberg, and Galen Bodenhausen
2013 The reappropriation of stigmatizing labels: The reciprocal relationship between power and self-labeling.
Psychological Science 241: 2020–2029.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Garrett, Paul, and Patricia Baquedano-Lopez
2002 Language socialization.
Annual Review of Anthropology 311: 339–361.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goffman, Erving
1967 Interaction Ritual. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guerriero, Alfonso
2013 Locker-room culture, offensive behavior in sports and the Italian-American experience.
L’Italo-Americano 2 December.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guillermo, Emil
2011 My slant on the slants and other Asian-American “N” words.
Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund 4 April.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hajela, D.
2012 Asian-Americans in military face routine racial slurs, bullying.
Anchorage Daily News 19 February.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hay, Ryan
2011 Hybrid expressivism and the analogy between pejoratives and moral language.
European Journal of Philosophy 211: 450–474.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hedger, Joseph
2013 Meaning and racial slurs.
Language and Communication 331: 205–213.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hibbard, Laura
2012 ‘Lady chinky eyes’.
The Huffington Post 7 January.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hom, Christopher
2010 Pejoratives.
Philosophy Compass 51: 164–185.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hom, Christopher
2008 The semantics of racial epithets.
Journal of Philosophy 1051: 416–440.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hoover, Eric
2007 Fighting words.
The Chronicle of Higher Education.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hsu, Huan
2012 No more chinks in the armor.
Slate 21 February.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jackson, Jennifer
2014 Structural differentiation and the poetics of violence shaping Barack Obama’s presidency: A study in personhood, literacy, and the improvisation of African-American publics.
Language Sciences.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jeshion, Robin
2013 Slurs and stereotypes.
Analytic Philosophy 541: 314–329.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johnson, Akilah
2009 Educators find that teens use ethnic slurs affectionately.
Sun Sentinel 4 July.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kelley, Lane
1992 Man accused in beating death made racial slur, detective says.
Sun Sentinel 7 October.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
2009 Confronting the New Faces of Hate. San Francisco: Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Education Fund.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lee, Lorin
2012 Singing Sinophone. Austin: University of Texas Ph.D. Thesis.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mainman, Bruce
2012 When did ‘chink’ become a racial slur? Examiner 19 February.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Malaspina, Ann
2008 The Ethnic and Group Identity. New York: Infobase.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Martin, Bradley
2006 Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McCready, Eric
2010 Varieties of conventional implicature.
Semantics and Pragmatics 31: 8.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McIlwain, Charlton
2014 Beware the power of racial slurs to dehumanize.
South China Morning Post 12 March.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mills, Sara
2009 Impoliteness in a cultural context.
Journal of Pragmatics 411: 1047–1060.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Morewitz, Stephen
2008 Death Threats and Violence. Dordrecht: Springer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Murray, Rheana
2012 Jeremy Lin slur.
New York Daily News 20 February.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Murse, Tom
2013 Cops probe assault, slurs against F&M Asian students.
Lancaster Online 11 September.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ochs, Elinor, and Bambi Schieffelin
1984 Language acquisition and socialization. In
Richard Shweder and
Robert LeVine (eds.),
Culture Theory. pp. 276–320. New York: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
O’Dea, Conor, Stuart Miller, Emma Andres, Madelyn Ray, Derrick Till, and Donald Saucier
2014 Out of bounds: Factors affecting the perceived offensiveness of racial slurs.
Language Sciences.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Park, Somi
2012 Anti-Asian slurs turn up in Queens.
Voices of New York 18 September.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pfister, Jonas
2010 Is there a need for a maxim of politeness? Journal of Pragmatics 421: 1266–1282.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Philadelphia Bar Association
2014 Resolution Opposing Use of Racial Slurs in Business Names. Philadelphia Bar Association.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pinker, Steven, and Alan Prince
1996 The nature of human concepts/evidence from an unusual source.
Communication and Cognition 291: 307–362.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Potts, Christopher, Ash Asudeh, Seth Cable, Yurie Hara, Eric McCready, Luis Alonso-Ovalle, Rajesh Bhatt, Christopher Davis, Angelika Kratzer, Tom Roeper, and Martin Walkow
2009 Expressives and identity conditions.
Linguistic Inquiry 401: 356–366.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak
2001 The discourse-historical analysis of the rhetoric of racism and antisemitism. In
Martin Reisigl and
Ruth Wodak (eds.),
Discourse and Discrimination. pp. 31–90. New York: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Reyes-Ortiz, Krissy
2011 Gran Torino actor reveals behind-the-scenes racism.
The Bottom Line 25 January.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Richard, Mark
2008 When Truth Gives Out. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Richburg, Keith
2008 Asian groups fight to change eatery’s name.
The Washington Post 15 April.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Roberts, Dmae
2014 Retiring phrases.
The Asian Reporter 241: 6–7.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rosch, Eleanor, and Carolyn Mervis
1975 Family resemblances.
Cognitive Psychology 71: 573–605.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ruble, Racheal, and Yan B. Zhang
2013 Stereotypes of Chinese international students held by Americans.
International Journal of Intercultural Relations 371: 202–211.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sally, David
2003 Risky speech.
Journal of Pragmatics 351: 1223–1245.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Salon
2010 Verboten vernacular or things you should never say.
Salon 25 August.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Saucier, Donald, Derrick Till, Stuart Miller, Conor O’Dea, and Emma Andres
2014 Slurs against masculinity: Masculine honor beliefs and men’s reactions to slurs.
Language Sciences.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shattuck, Ryan
2009 Them’s fightin’ words.
Edge 30 September.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stapleton, Bruce
2001 Redskins. Lincoln: Writers Club.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sweetland, Julie
2002 Unexpected but authentic use of an ethnically-marked dialect.
Journal of Sociolinguistics 61: 514–536.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tan, Sid
2012 Sid Tan: Charlie Quan was a Canadian hero, not a “chink”.
Straight 10 March.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Teetor, Paul
2013 Clippers controversy.
LA Weekly 26 November.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, Nicole
2013 John Leguizamo & Kanye West use re-appropriation to change perceptions.
Latin Post 11 November.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, Krissah
2014 Va. native Helen Wan on the ‘bamboo ceiling’.
The Washington Post 13 February.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wang, Grace
2012 The ABCs of Chinese pop.
The Journal of Transnational American Studies 41: 1–19.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Way, Niobe, Maria Hernandez, Leoandra Rogers, and Diane Hughes
2013 “
I’m not going to become no rapper”.
Journal of Adolescent Research 281: 407–430.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Williams, Jasmin
2012 Harlem teen fired for Asian slur.
Voices of New York 17 January.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
1953 Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yang, Jeff
2012 ‘Red Dawn’ spurs anti-Asian tweets.
The Wall Street Journal 26 November.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Sturaro, Samuel, Caterina Suitner & Fabio Fasoli
2023.
When is Self-Labeling Seen as Reclaiming? The Role of User and Observer's Sexual Orientation in Processing Homophobic and Category Labels’ use.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology 42:4
► pp. 464 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 june 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.