On some problems related to the anti-racist discourse. Exemplified by the case of the dispute over the parliamentary statement made by deputy Górski

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to draw attention to the issue of efficacy of the anti-racist communication strategies used to publicize and criticize cases of the racist hate speech in the Polish public discourse. I argue that the actions being currently undertaken within this field – defined as the anti-racist discourse – are often ineffective. The empirical basis for considerations presented in the article is provided by a discourse analysis focusing on the media dispute evoked by the parliamentary statement made by deputy Artur Górski (Law and Justice) on October 5, 2008. The context for reflection on the Polish anti-racist discourse and the controversies over the validity of the racist hate speech is of double nature. On one hand, it is shaped by the American debates on political correctness carried out in the eighties and nineties of the 20th century. On the other, the context comprises transformations of the racist and anti-racist discourse in the Western Europe as well as the rhetoric of the European populist right that has been developing since the seventies of the last century. In the article, I point at some of the causes of inefficacy of the anti-racist discourse and also try to outline certain general directives that can offer a departure point for reasonable modification of the anti-racist communication strategies in the future.