Who Reclaims Slurs?

Reclamation is usually taken to be the phenomenon wherein in‐groups employ a slur to express pride, foster camaraderie, or subvert discriminatory structures. We provide data showing that, under some special circumstances, out‐groups successfully reclaim slurs too. Thus, the mainstream restriction to...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Pacific Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 103; no. 3; pp. 606 - 620
Main Authors:	Cepollaro, Bianca, López de Sa, Dan
Format:	Article
Published:	Wiley-Blackwell Sep2022
Subjects:	Discriminatory language Outgroups (Social groups) Ingroups (Social groups)
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost

Description
Summary:	Reclamation is usually taken to be the phenomenon wherein in‐groups employ a slur to express pride, foster camaraderie, or subvert discriminatory structures. We provide data showing that, under some special circumstances, out‐groups successfully reclaim slurs too. Thus, the mainstream restriction to in‐groups is merely an approximation of the correct extension of the phenomenon – of who does actually reclaim slurs. Removing any such stipulative restriction opens a path towards further theorizing into the nature of reclamation.