The moral status of the reclamation of slurs

Title:

The moral status of the reclamation of slurs

Creator:

Cepollaro, Bianca

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:02bb792d-3a17-45db-8223-ac9dc49a265c
uuid:02bb792d-3a17-45db-8223-ac9dc49a265c
doi:10.31577/orgf.2021.28309

Subject:

hate speech, polarity reversal, reclamation, reverse racism, reverse sexism, and slurs

Type:

model:article and TEXT

Format:

bez média and svazek

Description:

While prototypical uses of slurs express contempt for targets, some reclaimed uses are associated with positive evaluations. This practice may raise concerns. I anticipate this criticism in what I dub the Warrant Argument (WA) and then defend the legitimacy of this kind of reclamation. For the WA, standard pejorative uses of slurs are problematic for assuming unwarranted connections between descriptive properties (e.g., being gay) and value judgements (e.g., being worthy of contempt). When reclaimed uses of slurs express a positive evaluation of their targets—the WA goes—reclamation fails to challenge the unwarranted link between descriptive properties and value judgements, and merely reverses the evaluation polarity from negative to positive. So, the WA concludes, reclaimed uses of slurs evaluating targets positively for belonging to a certain group make a similar moral error as derogatory uses of slurs (sections 2-3). The WA could lead us to condemn reclamation. To resist this conclusion, I draw a parallel with affirmative action, arguing that it can be morally permissible to balance an existing form of injustice by temporarily introducing a countervailing mechanism that prima facie seems to violate the norm of equality: even if the WA were right, it wouldn’t constitute an argument against the moral permissibility of reclamation in the case of most slurs (section 4). This line of argument in defense of pride reclamation may also serve to debunk the myths of reverse racism and reverse sexism (section 5).

Language:

Slovak

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
policy:public

Coverage:

672-688

Source:

Organon F: filozofický časopis | 2021 Volume:28 | Number:3

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false