ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how transfer of affect-laden denigratory content to others takes place in the form of “hate speech”. Hate speech constitutes the subject, its recipient, in a subordinate position. The chapter is concerned with a phenomenology of injurious speech, speech acts which are citational, rather than original, and which reinforce or reinsert a cultural pattern of domination. The chapter discusses some of the debates concerning injurious speech, arguing that while a defence of unlimited “free speech” as a human right is too simplistic, a defence of restrictions is associated with problems to do with the social identities of the “judges”. Performative statements rely on social rituals and social norms of authority. The chapter examines not only directly hateful and discriminatory utterances, but also the conceptual frames that, while in themselves seemingly innocent, lend support to “hate speech”.
