The papers in this volume illustrate the role discursive practices play in stereotyping, denigration and exclusion of powerless minorities on racial, religious or constitutional grounds. More specifically, some of the papers deal with either official or authoritative discourses on subordinate ethnic minorities in Western, predominantly white, societies. Another common theme pertains to the question how negative attitudes persist in discourse at a time when public expressions of overt intolerance are officially (and sometimes legally) sanctioned.