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Cited by 64Cultural and political discourse analysisLanguage, Discourse, Communication StrategiesLinguistic Variation and Morphology

The public life of white affects

Open access
Bucholtz, Mary·2019·Journal of Sociolinguistics
DOI 10.1111/josl.12392
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Abstract

The growing political power of racialized groups in white‐supremacist societies has unsettled the hegemonic position of whiteness. In the United States, this political shift has led to the linguistic repositioning of whiteness within public discourse as visible and vulnerable rather than unmarked and dominant; such repositioning operates as part of a larger strategy for maintaining white supremacy. Within white publics, which are simultaneously constituted through white public space, white public discourse, and white affects, those who are white‐identified linguistically engage in affective performances that reassert racial dominance by invoking claims of wounded whiteness. The article compares the affective strategies of white public discourse found, on the one hand, in ethnographic interviews with white youth in liberal educational spaces in California and, on the other hand, in the mediatized discourse of the US racist far right. The analysis identifies five affective discourse strategies deployed in the white public discourse of both groups: colormute racism; disavowals of racism; appropriations of diversity discourses; performances of white fragility; and claims of reverse racism. This shared set of discursive strategies is part of the larger convergence and mutual dependence of militant racism and mainstream racism in protecting all white people’s possessive investment in white supremacy.

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  • Colourmute racism is discursively manifested either by treating racial topics and terms as taboo or by rejecting the possibility that racial inequity could be rooted in racism.

    “This process has been termed 'colourmute racism', that which is 'discursively manifested either by treating racial topics and terms as taboo (. . . ) or by rejecting the possibility that racial inequity could be rooted in racism' (Bucholtz, 2019: 491).”

    From ‘You're not supposed to be gay, you're black’: Analysing race and LGBTQ+ youth identity through an intersectional lens (2025) · cites this paper as Bucholtz, 2019

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Bucholtz, M., Casillas, D. I., & Lee, J. S. (Eds.). (2018). Feeling it: Language, race, and affect in Latinx youth learning. New York, NY: Routledge.
  2. Eckert, P. (2008). Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12, 453-476. | 503
  3. Foucault, M. ([1978] 1990). The history of sexuality (Vol. 1. Trans. Robert Hurley). New York, NY: Vintage.
  4. Gutiérrez, K. (2005/2006). White innocence: A framework and methodology for rethinking educational discourse and inquiry. International Journal of. Learning, 12, 223-229.
  5. Low, S., & Smith, N. (Eds.). (2006). The politics of public space. New York, NY: Routledge.
  6. McIntosh, J. (2016). Unsettled: Denial and belonging among white Kenyans. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

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Authors
Bucholtz, M.
Affiliations
University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
Corresponding author
Bucholtz, Mary
ORCID
Bucholtz, Mary
Venue
Journal of Sociolinguistics
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2019-11
Volume
23
Issue
5
Pages
485-504
ISSN
  • 1360-6441 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9841
DOI
10.1111/josl.12392
OpenAlex
W2982869189
Cited by
63
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6
FWCI
18.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 5 d)
Locations
  • Journal of Sociolinguistics (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Cultural and political discourse analysis
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
Keywords
white supremacy, whiteness, affect, white fragility, reverse racism, far right, white youth, racial dominance, affective performance

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