Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Discourse & Society
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by BILLIG, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Humour and Hatred: The Racist Jokes of the Ku Klux Klan

MICHAEL BILLIG

LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY

The article examines the links between humour and hatred - a topic that is often ignored by researchers of prejudice. The article studies three websites that present racist humour and display sympathies with the Ku Klux Klan. The analysis emphasizes the importance of examining the `metadiscourse', which presents and justifies the humour, as much as studying the nature of the humour itself. The meta-discourse of the sites' disclaimers is studied in relation to the justification of a joke being `just a joke'. It is shown that the extreme racist humour of the KKK is not just a joke, even in terms of its own meta-discourse of presentation. The meta-discourse also suggests that the extreme language of racist hatred is indicated a matter for enjoyment. The sites portray the imagining of extreme racist violence as a matter of humour and the ambivalence of their disclaimers is discussed. As such, it is suggested that there are integral links between extreme hatred and dehumanizing, violent humour.

Key Words: bigotry • discourse • hatred • humour • Ku Klux Klan • racism • violence

Discourse & Society, Vol. 12, No. 3, 267-289 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0957926501012003001
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J Health PsycholHome page
C. McVittie and K. Goodall
Harry, Paul and the Filipino Maid: Racial and Sexual Abuse in Local Contexts
J Health Psychol, July 1, 2009; 14(5): 651 - 654.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Discourse SocietyHome page
E. Stokoe and D. Edwards
`Black this, black that': racial insults and reported speech in neighbour complaints and police interrogations
Discourse Society, May 1, 2007; 18(3): 337 - 372.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Sport and Social IssuesHome page
C. R. King
Defacements/Effacements: Anti-Asian (American) Sentiment in Sport
Journal of Sport and Social Issues, November 1, 2006; 30(4): 340 - 352.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Discourse SocietyHome page
G. Mautner
Time to get wired: Using web-based corpora in critical discourse analysis
Discourse Society, November 1, 2005; 16(6): 809 - 828.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Qualitative ResearchHome page
R. R. Gouin
What's So Funny?: Humor in women's accounts of their involvement in social action
Qualitative Research, April 1, 2004; 4(1): 25 - 44.
[Abstract] [PDF]