24 The Linguist Vol/60 No/1 2021
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Katerina Strani looks at hate speech in English and Polish to
determine whether the same tropes manifest in both languages
W
hen a 40-year-old Polish man
named Arkadiusz Jóźwik was
killed in Harlow by a British
teenager two months after the Brexit vote, the
incident reverberated around the Essex town.
There was a public meeting organised by
Essex Police, a visit by the Polish ambassador,
and even a public statement by European
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
condemning the attack. The judge ruled
manslaughter; no intent was proved, and the
killing was determined to be the result of a
brawl. Yet the incident caused controversy.
There was considerable debate in the media
over whether there was a xenophobic
motivation, given the political backdrop.
This was an example of how a tragic
incident turned into a divisive debate over
Brexit, the kind of immigrants Britain should
have and, in Poland, the political narrative of
antypolonizm – a term popularised by the
current Polish government around 2015.
What all such reactions have in common is
othering – a natural cognitive process which
is related to seeing difference and
subsequently categorising, however the
categories themselves are (socially)
constructed.
1
When done systematically,
othering aims at undermining, oppressing
and ultimately rejecting the other. Hate
speech has a critical role in this respect.
Hate speech goes beyond the use of
offensive words. Banning racist, homophobic,
Is hate universal?
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