Derogation without words: On the power of non-verbal pejoratives

Orcs are monsters with origins in Irish folklore popularized in the Lord of the Rings book and movie series, and also widely used in the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) game systems. In recent years, controversies have arisen regarding whether orcs involve racist depictions or may promote racism in real life. Recent evidence from other studies finds that playing D&D is not associated with real-life racism, and most people including people of color don’t find depictions of orcs to be offensive or racist. However, it may still be possible that racist stereotypes are used in visual depictions of orcs. The current study sought to address this with a content analysis of 78 images of orcs from the D&D game or from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies from the 1970s and 2000s. Use of racist stereotypes were very rare in visual depictions of orcs and incidental when they did occur. Evidence did not support that visual depictions of orcs depended upon visual stereotypes of real-life human groups.

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No Harm, Still Foul: On the Effect-Independent Wrongness of Slurring

DiFranco¹,

Morgan²

2023

J. of the Am. Philos. Assoc.

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Intuitively, a speaker who uses slurs to refer to people is doing something morally objectionable even if no one is measurably affected by their speech. Perhaps they are only talking to themselves, or they are speaking with bigots who are already as vicious as they can be. This paper distinguishes between slurring as an expressive act and slurring as the act of causing a psychological effect. It then develops an expression-focused ethical account in order to explain the intuition that slurring involves an effect-independent moral wrong. The core idea is that the act of expressing a morally defective attitude is itself pro tanto morally objectionable. Unlike theories that focus only on problematic effects, this view is able to shift the moral burden of proof away from victims of slurring acts and onto speakers. It also offers moral guidance with respect to metalinguistic and pedagogical utterances of slurs.

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Derogation without words: On the power of non-verbal pejoratives

Cited by 3 publications

References 39 publications

The Measurement and Structure of Microaggressive Communications by White People Against Black People

The Measurement and Structure of Microaggressive Communications by White People Against Black People

Do visual depictions of monster orcs involve visual racial stereotypes? A brief report

No Harm, Still Foul: On the Effect-Independent Wrongness of Slurring

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