ABSTRACT
EVERYDAY talk reveals our beliefs, feelings, and attitudes. Sim-ilarly, informal ingroup conversations show which shared opin-ions we have about various outgroups in society. Stereotypes and prejudice against ethnic minority groups thus are acquired, confirmed, and expressed through discourse among majority group members. If intergroup interaction is where racism and ethnicism display themselves as discrimination, intragroup communication forms are the location for the formulation of their cognitive underpinnings. In our talk about "them," we engage in a mode of strategic interaction that essentially has two major functions. On the one hand, we express our socially shared ethnic opinions and thus reveal contents, organization, and personal relevance. On the other hand, we exhibit and confirm our allegiances and conformity toward the ingroup, and convey our social cognitions persuasively (whether tolerant or prejudiced) to other members of the ingroup.
