Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Hom and Camp [Christina Sanchez]

Hom brings up the idea that racial slurs are either semantic, which he argues more on the side for, or pragmatic. He also argues that slurs always have a negative connotation regardless of context, and these derogatory terms get their force by their meaning and racist institutions.

Camp argues that slurs get their negative force based on the perspective of the user. The force comes from what the user is implying rather than always being deemed negative. Camp also mentions that the negativity of a slur is dependent upon the relationship between the user and the target.

Given these two takes on slurs, I agree with parts of both, but I have to say I agree more so with Camp. This is because I can use derogatory words toward my best friends, such as calling her a "bitch" or something along those lines, and I do not mean that in a negative way, and she knows that. Because that is just how we talk to each other sometimes and neither of us mean anything negative by it, I have to go with the side that deals with the perspective of the user.

No comments:

Post a Comment