Subtle, Pervasive, Harmful: Racist and Sexist Remarks in Public as Hate Speech

Abstract

Using field observations and 100 in‐depth interviews with participants recruited from public places in Northern California, this article documents the experience of being the target of hate speech in public places. Focusing on racist and sexist hate speech (as participants define the phenomenon), I show that there is a range of experiences with hate speech and that it is often quite subtle, leaving all but intended victims unaware that it occurs. These data also show that such interactions occur with regularity and leave targets harmed in significant ways. There can be little doubt that members of traditionally disadvantaged groups face a strikingly different reality on the street than do members of privileged groups. Although the legal status of hate speech remains ambiguous, its harms are not.

Social Group Identity and Perceptions of Online Hate*

“…Prejudice is an unfortunate, yet enduring, feature of human society, and hate speech is one manifestation of prejudice. Though normatively detestable, hate speech is largely protected as free speech in the United States (Nielsen ), allowing individuals to disseminate hateful messages with near impunity. The dawning and expansion of the Internet, particularly social media platforms, have broadened and accelerated the spread of hate material, especially in the United States (Hawdon, Oksanen, and Räsänen ).…”

Unemployment and Right‐wing Extremist Crime*

“…Right‐wing extremism is a serious problem in many societies, not so much because of its economic costs, but rather because it questions fundamental values, such as the equality and integrity of all individuals, and because of its severe impact on victims (Leets, 2002; Nielsen, 2002). Germany, for example, has witnessed several fatal assaults on foreigners 1 .…”

The Violence of Persuasive Argument: Using Durkheim to Outline a Latent Barrier to a Nonviolent Criminology

“…13 There is a fairly prominent body of legal literature that addresses the harms associated with hate speech as an aspect of the larger related problem of racism (see Matsuda et al 1993). Evidence of direct psychological harms from hate speech continues to be reported in the literature (e.g., Landrine and Klonoff 1996;Boeckmann and Liew 2002;Leets 2002;Nielsen 2002). Moreover, hate speech has been related to higher rates of suicide among some groups (Mullen and Smyth 2004).…”