ABSTRACT
MacMullen, 1963; Nielsen, 1979). Palmore (1962, p. 442) went so far as to state that, “it is probably safe to say that there is no known group which does not use ethnophaulisms.” Even in what is sometimes caricatured as a “politically correct” cultural climate, the popular media continue to report the use of ethnophaulisms in interethnic conflicts (e.g., Associated Press, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003; Fuquay, 2003; Peterson, 2000; Reuters, 2000, 2001). Indeed, even popular fiction uses “fictional” ethnophaulisms as a telegraphic shorthand for intergroup conflict and hostility. For example, in the film “The Matrix” (1999), the character Switch denigrates the protagonist Neo by using as an ethnophaulism the derogatory term coppertop referring to Neo’s membership in the category of humans who are used as an energy source by the Matrix (see also the use of skinjobs in the film Blade Runner (1982), the use of flattops in Smith’s (1974) short story “A day in the suburbs,” or the use of mudblood in Rowling’s (1999) children’s book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets).
