прагматика и медиа дискурс / Teun A van Dijk - Communicating Racism

142 Communicating Racism

(a) The nature of talk about foreigners.

Speakers have the ability to describe and evaluate general talk about foreigners, and may use such semitechnical expressions as stereotype quite often. Some of them are also aware of the opinion and prejudice-inducing nature of negative conversations. Thus, especially the better educated, instead of talking about their own opinion, tend to talk about those of others, or about the mechanisms of opinion formation. In the following abstracts, we find a few of such general comments on foreigner talk:

(1)I-G-1 (Boy, 16, low-con, P2)

I:If you talk with your friends about Turks, Surinamese or Moroccans, what kind of things do you hear?

B: When we really talk about it then they are really negative conversa- tions (...) But I do not bother with that .. .

(2)I-Z-1/2 (Woman/Woman, 45145, housemaid/clerk, low-con, P3/P3)

I:What do you think about foreigners coming to live in Amsterdam?

W 1: I have little to do with that, but uhh I thought that it ... uhhm .. .

one quickly takes over the opinion of others .. .

(3) I-Z- 1/2 (Woman/Woman, 45145, housemaid/clerk, low-con, P3/P3) W2: No, I mean we can't really have an opinion about that. 1 do have an

opinion, I could form an opinion, after all that talk you hear in the streetcar.

W 1: Just as I say! You hear so much from others.

W2: Two or three times a week, you are sitting in the streetcar, I had it twice last week. This old lady sitting beside me, a decent old lady, begins to tell stories like that about foreigners, that she doesn't accept them ... I can see that from all her talk. She simply says that in the streetcar, where everybody can hear her. Did she have it from herself, or did she hear it from others?

W 1: Well, 1 didn't react to that, because it was a woman of over 60 years oid.

(4)II-AC-3 (Man, 63, bookseller and librarian, high-con, P3)

(About a foreign family) M: You can't blame the foreigner for that, but the neighbors do that, the people who the do the people in this neighborhood, they tend to blame it on the

I:That is, that is what you hear

M: Oh yes, yes, they cometo me in the library and they go like "they did this and that or this happened and 1 don't dare to do anything about it," because when when it hadn't been a colored erson, if it hadn't been a Surinamese, if it hadn't been a Moroccan, or hadn't it been a Turk, then they surely would have spoken up, because 1 had them here as clients, people like you would say one shouldn't have an argument with them, because if she would open her mouth, you know, then you were finished.

1:But what kind of stories did they tell, for instance, what happened to those people?

M:(S) Story about Surinamese family with a lot of children, who make a lot of noise, leave open the front door, etc., and the old [Dutch]

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downstairs neighbor is not used to that and is complaining all the time.

(5)III-CB-1x (Man, 34, sociologist, low-con, P2)

(S) Sometimes you hear from people who live there about rags hanning before the windows, and toilet bowls being removed. And when I hved in one of those neighborhoods "you could often hear from people that they resented that, and thatwas discussed, I mean people all the time

were busy fbrming their opinions about that, say, and testing what .. you thought about that yourself, and what your own experiences were with others" so that you knew whether people were for or against foreigners, and for what reasons. In that sense people knew more about each other than in this neighborhood.

(6)III-ET-1 (Man, 37, university teacher, 10w-con, P1)

(Story in newspaper) (S) M: Yes, those stories you read all the time like slaughtering sheep and blood streaming from the walls, type of stories you hear on each point where people have unfounded opimons. You are sitting in the train and somebody starts to talk to you about all those people on unemployment allowances, and then they start telling a story "I KNOW SOMEBODY, a family of 5 persons of which 4 have an allowance, they together make twice as much as we make." Such stories are told a hundred times, until they legitimitize the conclusion that the allowances may well go down, because people live nicely on them and couldn't care less about a job (...) Apparently it is allowed and interesting for people to tell and hear those stories, especially when they are never contradicted. It is important to react to this, for instance, when in the papers oras 1 saw recently on TV, people do as if those stories are normal, and that the media just register them so that people are getting used to them and a normal way of storytelling.

(7)III-MR-3 (Man, 36, low-con, P3)

(S)You hear those stories, things that are salient, like how Turks treat their women, or about slaughtering, usually not very positive things. 1 don't know what to believe of those stories (...) There is a lot of bull- shit among it.

(8)III-AB-4x (Man, 77, retired construction worker, low-con, PS)

(S)If foreigners stay here for too long, it will lead to chaos, then you get those racist situations, that people start to say, What are they doing here, we already have so many people, that is what people talk about in their daily conversations (...) 1 hear both old and young people say sometimes, OK let us have this Centrum Party. [Racist party that at the time of this interview had just obtained one seat in parliament. This CP party is discussed often in all interviews of group III, recorded in a typical noncontact area.]

These examples first suggest that people have the impression that most talk about foreigners is negative (see, e.g., example 1). This is so often said in the interviews that it has nearly become a stereotype itself. It suggests that people do not talk positively very often about ethnic groups. The experiment by Sprangers (1983), discussed before, already found that people are able to (re)produce negative stereotypes much more

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often than positive ones. Indeed, other examples show that people have no consensual stereotypes about positive or at least neutral talk. Exceptions are the more positively intended media messages, especially TV programs, which, in fact, are often commented upon negatively by people (see below).

One woman (in example 2) states that—probably negative—opinions emerging in everyday talk tend to be taken over rather quickly, and (in example 3) she mentions an interesting event from a typical streetcar situation, which is one of the few public situations in which people talk to each other about things of common interest. The old lady is described as expressing plain negative opinions about foreigners, and the comment of the woman who tells this story is relevant for several reasons: First, she apparently felt embarrassed that one should talk so negatively about foreigners in a public place (which suggests a strong norm against prejudiced talk), and, second, she wonders whether, in fact, the old lady has the opinions on the basis of personal experience or hearsay. In other words, people do differentiate between opinions based on experiences and those based on just talk. Third, the woman indicates that she did not react to this kind of talk, which is a kind of reaction reported more often: Only a few people openly contradict the racist talk of others, even when they seem to disagree. In studies about the nature of racism, this kind of "silence" has been called a form of "passive racism" (Essed, 1984). Finally, she also gives a reason for not talking back: It is an old lady. This may mean that one does not start a fight with elderly people (out of respect), that the elderly cannot be held responsible for what they say, or that the elderly (elderly women?) only have such prejudices, which would be in line with our earlier finding that there is a correlation between higher prejudice and higher age.

The other examples show various additional instances of communication situations, such as the train, the public community library, or just the neighborhood in general. The speakers in these three other examples are all men who apparently have experienced or thought about such events more often. They actually analyze them and venture generalizations or hypotheses about prejudice formation. The librarian (in example 4) observes that people make complaints about foreigners to him, but that they do not dare to speak up to the foreigners themselves, a topic we have found in several other interviews. The sociologist analyzes the situation in his own previous (high-contact) neighborhood, and observes that people in such neighborhoods, in general, have more mutual knowledge about each other, including knowledge about what the opinions are about foreigners. Talk about foreigners, in that sense, is seen as an "opinion test" for the recipient and as a device to measure agreement. The university teacher (in example 6) gives examples of the stereotypes

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something everybody uhh thinks is unbearable uhh like that they profit from uhh yes our social services and all that and and uhh hanging out and show off and uhh .. .

(15)(= 10) I-D-5 (Woman, 25, social worker, high-con, P2) I: What do people talk about in that community center?

W:Uhh, yes, that they ... well (???) there ISn't much talk about them. Yes, they take our our uhh jobs and ... they all live on welfare, they get better houses than we are offered ... that is we Dutch, uhh let me think ... I believe that that was the biggest list of complaints.

(16)I-C-4 (Woman, 69, high-con, P2) What I hear, what I hear from other people, is that they make a lot of music at night and all that. We don't know about that.

(17)II-RA 2 (aloman/man, 62/65, retired, high-con, P4)

(S) There is growing antipathy in the neighborhood against foreigners.

That is easy to feel. Mainly because of the unemployment. I: How do you notice that in the street?

W: Well, in the conversations in the street, then they start, you know I: When you talk with people in the shops, or what?

W:No, like the general opinion in the street can you can, if you know peo- ple a bit, you can read it from their faces.

(18) III-SV 2x (Woman, 37, low-con, P2) (Divorced from Moroccan) I: (S) What do they say in your family?

W:(S) Everybody has to look at himself.1 don't notice those things. They say that foreigners profit [from the social services] And my brother-in-

law has those prejudices. So I don't go there anymore. I feel that they discriminate against me, also because I'm on welfare.

(19)III-AB-Ix (Man, 79, teacher, low-con, P1)

(S) Many people I talk with blame the economic crisis on the presence

of foreigners. They are not all fascists. I know a learned Jewish lawyer who also says the same thing.

(20)III-MR-3 (Man, 36, low-con, P3)

(S)You hear those stories, things that are salient, like how Turks treat their women, or about slaughtering, usually not very positive things. I don't know what to believe of those stories (...) There is a lot of bullshit among it.

The woman in example 12 makes a rather stereotypical reference to "stories you hear" as a reason for her not going out anymore, a reason given by many elderly ladies. Yet, she does not specify what kind of stories, nor that these are related to foreigners, although that is clearly implied by the context of this passage. This is also an example of an avoidance strategy, because she redirects the conversation to the danger topic, and also denies that people have actually told her personal experiences (as we found in category b aboye). Example 13 is more explicitly negative about foreigners and suggests that the stories being told must be negative, expressing very negative opinions of the people in the neighborhood. This woman also addresses the well-known topic of retalia-

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tion: autochthonous people don't dare to complain openly for fear of revenge by the foreigners (see also the story of the librarian in example 4). This means that negative talk is experienced as difficult for many people: On the one hand it is censored by the overall norm of tolerance and on the other hand the victims of such talk may strike back. This, of course, enhances the self-portrayal of prejudiced people as being victims themselves of the presence of ethnic groups. One of the main tenets in the propaganda of racist parties (such as Centrum Party) is, indeed, that they plead for an "open discussion about the problem of foreigners," whereas they and others (for instance, journalists) also maintain that it must be possible to express one's attitudes freely in a democratic society: Talk (i.e., negative talk) about foreigners should not be taboo. Apparently such views appeal to the widespread feeling that it is (unjustly) forbidden to say negative things about foreigners.

The actual stereotypes are given in examples 14 through 20. The woman in example 14, whom we have met in the same example 9 before as first denying the occurrence of such stories, mentions that foreigners profit from the social services, which is one of the prevalent stereotypes in the interviews. The other opinions are less stereotypical and seem to be a more personal evaluation: Showing off and hanging out patently refers to Blacks, who are sometimes said to dress (too) well and to behave too immodestly.

The next examples add to the stereotype about welfare cheating, about taking jobs and houses, and making too much noise (especially loud music) . The woman in example 16 adds that she doesn't experience such negative facts, whereas the woman in example 18 says that she doesn't react to such stereotypes anymore but simply stays away from her family. Interestingly, she establishes a link between these stereotypes and her own position both as being divorced from a Moroccan and as being on welfare herself. This suggests that she sees a coherent pattern in the prejudices of her family, whether against foreigners or against people who are dependent on welfare.

The woman in example 17 mentions and agrees with the general opinion that foreigners cause unemployment and, at the same time, denies that she knows of concrete talk: She can infer opinions from people's nonverbal interaction. This again suggests that there might be a general reluctance to talk about such things, but that people make indirect references or make faces when the topic comes up.

The two men in examples 19 and 20 also refer to general stories, and add stereotypes such as blaming the economic recession on foreigners and the usual list of cultural differences, such as assumed sheep slaughtering at home and the bad treatment of Turkish or Moroccan women. The man in example 20 hesitates about whether he should believe such

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stories but supposes much of it must be untrue. This suggests that people seem to make a distinction between general opinions, which one might hold or not, and between concrete stories, which may be true or false, and, hence, fall under criteria of credibility.

The old man in example 19, himself a Jewish historian with strong antiracist opinions, expresses the widely held opinion that even when people vote a racist party like CP, they need not all be racists themselves: They may vote for the party just because of frustration about the economic recession. He sustains that argument with a concrete example of an acquaintance (also Jewish, "so therefore not racista' and a lawyer, and "therefore, an intelligent person"), who also has the opinion that foreigners cause unemployment.

Although far from all stereotypes have been discussed here, the examples show how they come up, are evaluated, and commented on in and after talk about ethnic groups. Some people simply reject them as racist opinions or as just talk, others are hesitant and have doubts, whereas others again accept the stereotypes as general and accepted facts, that is, as things "everybody knows around here"

(d) Concrete stories. Of course, many of the general opinions are not isolated negative stereotypes but are sustained by concrete experiences and stories about them. In the following examples, we find a few instances of references to talk between the interviewee and others about concrete experiences they have had. These examples also show how people hear and select experiences of others as illustrations of their own opinions:

(21)III-TM-1 (Woman, 76, physiotherapist, low-con, P4)

(What if more Surinamese would come and live in this neighborhood. What would people say?)

W:I think they wouldn't like it. It is quite a life-style, isn't it. From a city council member I know—he lives there on J-street (...) but in a simple little apartment, downstairs. Upstairs lives a Turkish family. That lady is used to throw a pail of water on the floor and scrub it. And then it leaks down (...) And then the food, you know, you smell the onions a couple of houses further down the street (...) Yes foreigners have to adapt, that Turkish lady alsodid that there on J-street. Because later I

asked Mrs. D. "How is it going How is life," "No, she has accommodated herself." So she has adapted herself.

(22)III-RL-Ix (Woman, 55, German teacher, low-con, P3)

(S) Can imagine that people discriminate. My maid comes from such a

neighborhood and has Turkish and Moroccan neighbors, and the things that happen there explain why Dutch families get mad once in a while, like using a loose bath, without a tiled floor so that there is leakage.

(23)I-C-6 (Woman, 60, 10w-con, P6)

(Daughter is not impressed by charm of foreign men) She says, they look at you [on the bus] as if they want to undress you with their eyes.

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They are used to that there, that women and girls are not allowed to go out of the house. DO WE HAVE TO STAY INDOORS BECAUSE

THEY ARE NOT USED TO THAT?

(24)I-D-4 (Woman, 35, high-con, P5)

(Turk gave his apartment to another Turkish family) Yes, maybe it is just

talk, I don't know [hesitating].

(25)I-E-1 (Woman, 40, office, high-con, P6)

(S) My mother gets fish scales on her laundry when Spaniards upstairs

clean their fish aboye it.

(26)I-E-1 (Woman, 40, office, high-con, P6)

(S) And with a colleague of mine, Moroccans live upstairs and they pee

over her laundry.

(27)I-E-5 (Man, 66, retired fireman, high-contact, P4)

(S) The old lady next door was mugged by three young Surinamese kids.

(28)II-PA-1 (Woman, 27, secretary, high-con, P3)

(Greengrocer assaulted by a foreigner because he didn't want to sell after closing time. People standing around while the policeman took away the foreigner with force) (S) People were aggressive. But the opinions were divided. Some thought it was a scandal that the greengrocer was beaten up, and so found it natural that the policeman was rough with him. Others, "colored people quote unquote," had doubts about it (... )

I: Are these the kind of stories you hear more often here in the street?

W:(S) I don't hear much because I work the whole day. "The only things I hear is at the greengrocer's and well a bit through my contacts with the

people next door." And I notice also that when elections are coming up I get leaflets of the CPN [Dutch Communist Party], but at the same time from the Centrum Party [anti-foreigner party], and that same evening a letter from the community center against that and "I read then this and that and that many colored people live here . . ." But I don't notice that and I don't care.

In these examples we find concrete stories but, at the same time, they illustrate stereotypes. Apparently, it is especially those events that confirm general prejudices—or what are known as such—that are paid attention to and reproduced in stories. In examples 21 and 22 we find two typical "leakage" stories, which are usually told to illustrate the kind of neighborly trouble autochthonous people claim to experience from ethnic minority groups that are not used "to our way of doing things." Apart from being stories about harassment, they also show, sometimes rather patronizingly, how stupid or backward "those people" still are. "They don't know how to ... " is a typical introduction for such concrete stories. Notice that both stories are told by women in a low-contact area, attributed to an acquaintance and the maid, respectively, who live in "such a neighborhood."

In example 24, brief reference is made to the well-known (assumed) fact that foreigners take houses or are favored in housing by the city authorities. In this case, however, the woman who tells the story adds

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that maybe it is "just talk," which shows that people may be aware of the fact that even concrete stories may be made up. The following stories are more concrete and intended to illustrate how "dirty" foreigners can be. Sources this time are the mother and a colleague of the interviewed woman. To emphasize the truth of the first story, the woman adds that the interviewer "can go there herself and ask," giving the address. Similarly, the woman in example 23 gives an example of the traditional stereotype that foreigners are sexually aggressive—which does not occur often in our data. In retelling the experience of her daughter, as well as emphasizing the negative opinion of her daughter about such events (the story would, of course, be pointless if the daughter would happen to like such attention), she also adds an explanation of the behavior of the foreign men: Their women have to stay at home. Finally, the interviewee gives an indignant, rhetorically formulated, moral judgement: "We" Dutch women cannot be expected todo likewise and stay at home, just to avoid foreign men. One other aspect in this topic is the "right to our own territory" principie, which can be found in many concrete stories and stereotypes in which ethnic groups are assumed to infringe on the privacy, space, or rights of autochthonous people.

The brief example summarized in example 27 implicitly denotes a neighbor story about a mugging, which we have quoted because of its stereotypical nature in high-contact areas. Many elderly people refer to such stories, although most of them also add that until now they have not yet experienced such violence themselves. Yet, because such events take place, one or a few stories may be sufficient to influence many neighbors, and this is especially the case if they are being broadcast by the media. Indeed, most people refer to the media for such instances of crime rather than to concrete stories from known people.

Finally, the last example (28) is a nice reconstruction of an informal communication situation apparently being participated in by the interviewee. After the assault on the greengrocer by a foreign customer who reacted against the refusal of the greengrocer to help him after closing time, the policeman arrives and "firmly" takes the foreigner into custody. People watch and talk. The woman has understood that in such talk different perspectives are possible; about the assault itself, people may agree. But then, the treatment of the foreigner by the police is open to discussion. Rather unusually the woman also mentions the point of view of the Black bystanders. In most other examples in which ethnic group members (mostly Surinamese) are mentioned as sources of talk, they are quoted as saying negative things about other Surinamese, thereby functioning as the ultimate confirmation of own opinions: "They say so themselves." In the same example, this woman also adds some information about other information sources in the high-contact neighborhood: propaganda, political party leaflets, and even a letter from the commu-