ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 explores how racist slur is treated in court. I analyse a case of offensive emails sent to a black Muslim female, a local politician, to understand the court’s approach to language. I argue that the court’s difficulties in recognizing the racist nature of the slur have to do with the ways in which the court separates the form from the message of this speech act. Racism is located in an inadequate form that is defined as ‘impolite’. The court’s approach to language is then compared with the court’s practice of language. By analysing how the judgement is rhetorically built, I claim that the process of dispensing justice cannot be limited to the message that is communicated—i.e. the verdict—but that it also resides in the form of the judgement. The court’s practice of language, how the form and message of the judgement are involved in the process of creating a meaning of this judicial speech act, contrasts with its approach to language applied to adjudicate the offensiveness of the speech act on trial.
