University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics Linguistics 2017 The Reflection and Reification of Racialized Language in Popular Media Kelly E. Wright University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.134 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Wright, Kelly E., "The Reflection and Reification of Racialized Language in Popular Media" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics. 18. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/18 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Kelly E. Wright, Student Dr. Kevin McGowan, Major Professor Dr. Edward R. Barrett, Director of Graduate Studies THE REFLECTION AND REIFICATION OF RACIALIZED LANGUAGE IN POPULAR MEDIA THESIS A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Kelly E. Wright Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Kevin McGowan, Professor of Linguistics Lexington, Kentucky 2017 Copyright © Kelly E. Wright 2017 ABSTRACT This work highlights specific lexical items that have become racialized in specific contextual applications and tests how these words are cognitively processed. This work presents the results of a visual world (Huettig et al 2011) eye-tracking study designed to determine the perception and application of racialized (Coates 2011) adjectives. To objectively select the racialized adjectives used, I developed a corpus comprised of popular media sources, designed specifically to suit my research question. I collected publications from digital media sources such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Fortune by scraping articles featuring specific search terms from their websites. This experiment seeks to aid in the demarcation of socially salient groups whose application of racialized adjectives to racialized images is near instantaneous, or at least less questioned. As we view growing social movements which revolve around the significant marks unconscious assumptions leave on American society, revealing how and where these lexical assignments arise and thrive allows us to interrogate the forces which build and reify such biases. Future research should attempt to address the harmful semiotics these lexical choices sustain. KEYWORDS: Racism; Perception; Linguistics; Eye Tracking; Corpus; Media Kelly E. Wright ____________________________ 14 April, 2017 ____________________________ THE REFLECTION AND REIFICATION OF RACIALIZED LANGUAGE IN POPULAR MEDIA By Kelly E. Wright Dr. Kevin McGowan Director of Thesis Dr. Edward R. Barrett Director of Graduate Studies April 14th, 2017 DEDICATION Arnetta Kelly Patton was the strongest woman I have ever known. She worked for everything she had. She and her husband built a home with four hands and prayer. They built a plan. The forces I am writing about shaped her entire life, shortened the list of her available choices. But she did not see any of that. She looked past it and saw me. She persisted. Arnetta Kelly Patton knew that Kelly Elizabeth Wright would have the strength, space, and perspective to see and challenge these forces, to shine light on the poison in so many minds. I offer these pages to her, as part of the plan, and to the women of color not yet graced with such a champion. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the gracious work and guidance of my committee—Dr. Kevin McGowan, Dr. Edward R. Barrett, Dr. Sasha Johnson-Coleman, Dr. Mark Richard Lauersdorf—I offer my sincerest gratitude. Thank you for all the endless conversations and long hours you put in to get me to a place where I could stand and ask good questions. My time at UK is something I will cherish always. Warm thanks is also extended to my fellow Graduate Student Instructors in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies department who opened their classrooms and inboxes to me as I recruited participants in this study. Without your flexibility and interest this product would look quite different. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………………………………… V LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………………………. VI INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 LITERATURE REVIEW SECTION 1: RACISM……………………………………………………………………………….. 7 SECTION 2: PSYCHOLOGY………………………………………………………………………. 19 SECTION 3: MEDIA………………………………………………………………………………… 23 METHODS……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 28 RESULTS………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 36 DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 44 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 49 APPENDIX A…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 54 REFERENCES………….………………………………………………………………………………………… 61 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 69 iv LIST OF TABLES TABLE ONE, Ratios of Critical Type to Total Word Count…………………………….. 43 v LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE ONE, Aggregate Reaction Times………………………………………………………….. 36 FIGURE TWO, Aggregate Dwell Times……………………………………………………………... 37 FIGURE THREE, Reaction Times by Critical Adjective………………………………………. 38 FIGURE FOUR, Dwell Times by Critical Adjective…………………………………………….. 39 FIGURE FIVE, Statuesque Reaction Time and Dwell Time……………………………….. 40 FIGURE SIX, Incomparable Reaction Time and Dwell Time…………………………….. 40 FIGURE SEVEN, Angry Reaction Time and Dwell Time…………………………………….. 40 FIGURE EIGHT, Unstoppable Reaction Time and Dwell Time………………………….. 40 FIGURE NINE, Reaction Time and Dwell Times by Semantic Type………………….. 41 vi INTRODUCTION Language has historically been used to marginalize minority populations by defining them (Alim and Smitherman 2012) and to maintain the marginality of these populations through semantic association with the terms used in those definitions, which are set by the majority (LeCouteur and Augoustinos 2001; Mastro 2011). Further, covert racism (Coates 2011) is deeply embedded in the descriptive and categorical latitude provided by the adjectives in the American English lexicon. Racism exists, though it is categorically denied in wide and intersecting swaths of society. Majority children are not taught the history of its rise because so many of their parents are blind to its existence—they believe we, as a society, have worked our way past it. But the cross-burning, death camp, rabbit- proof fence racism of generations past has simply switched its overt display for a covert, insidious presence, and has taken on this new form to infuse the social institutions which support it. Racism, covert racism especially, is inherently present in descriptive language. I have taken on this project in order to better understand the process through which language becomes racialized. We can think of the racialization process as a parallel of the gendering process; over time certain words are used to apply to what are thought to be mutually (and biologically) exclusive1 sections of society. Hearing a word like pretty, many would immediately conjure the image of a female (or some other sign commonly equated with femininity)—this word has become gendered. Hearing the word thug, many will immediately conjure the image of a Black youth—this word has become racialized. I argue that these connections are made below the level of conscious awareness, in the mental, semantic field which 1 In the traditional understanding of binary differentiation of such categories. 1 augments (and/or hinders) our cognitive processing of lexical information. This study was designed to test for the presence of such connections. This process of semantic field assignment in the cognitive space can be understood through the theoretical frames of indexicality and enregisterment (Johnstone 2006; Silverstein 2003; Labov 1972). An essential assumption