Selfing and othering through categories of race, place, and language among minority youths in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract

This is the first study of processes of selfing and othering by speakers of a nonstandard variety of Dutch. The group studied consists of young men in the Dutch city of Rotterdam who self-identify as Surinamese while having only very limited proficiency in what is considered their heritage language, Sranan. Applying a synthesis of principles and concepts from various semiotic approaches to the study of identification processes (Baumann 2004, Bucholtz & Hall 2005, Gal & Irvine 1995, it is shown that the youngsters in this study interweave categories of language, race, and place in assembling constantly changing multi-leveled identities that help to construct self and other. We will analyze the indexical workings of these interwoven categories and show how the constantly re-defined segmenting of these categories enables speakers to authenticate or denaturalize groups and individuals in changing discursive contexts.

The Promise of a Utopian Home, or Capitalism's Commoditization of Blackness

“…Urban youths may also form groups that have hard boundaries and are less hospitable to those who are seen as racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, or religious outsiders. A group of young men in Rotterdam identifying as Surinamese, reported on by Cornips and de Rooij (2013), exemplifies such an exclusivist attitude. Its members are extremely wary of white Dutch youths who want to be vernegerd (Negro-ized) and are therefore dismissed as nepnegers (fake Negroes).…”

“Those foreigners ruin everything here”: Interactional functions of ethnic labelling among pupils in the Netherlands

“…Among a group of friends observed by Shenk (: 199), “Spanish linguistic proficiency, place of birth, and purity of bloodline” functioned as criteria to determine “Mexicanness.” Several other authors have noted that issues of authenticity and authentication play an important role in labelling self and others. For example, young men of Surinamese descent in Rotterdam constantly redefined categories such as “Surinamese” and “Dutch” and thereby positioned some individuals as authentic and others as inauthentic (Cornips & de Rooij, ). While much work has concentrated on how ethnic and racial labels are implicated in youthful (meta‐)discourses of ethnic or racial identity, others have drawn attention to how such labels may be used to negotiate and construct other types of identity, such as gender or class (Chun, ).…”

“…The meanings of labels are not straightforward but, rather, are locally contingent and dependent on their specific social and interactional context (e.g. see Bucholtz, ; Cornips & de Rooij, ; Lee, ; Nørreby & Møller, ; Shenk, ).…”

Is Dutch Straattaal a mixed multiethnolect? A Moroccan perspective

“…There are many reasons to reject the term Straattaal. However, as it has, to a large extent, gained acceptance among its users (e.g., the speakers studied in Cornips and De Rooij 2013), I will not problematize the denomination as such. It should be stressed, though, that the term is by no means always used in the same way (its exact referent will be discussed further below).…”