ABSTRACT
The construction of in-groups and out-groups is a constitutive element of the re/production of racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism in all its direct and indirect forms. At the heart of Teun van Dijk's truly innovative approach to discourse and racism is the development of a theoretical model, which serves to explain cognitive discourse processing mechanisms related to the production and reproduction of racism. Although appropriate in the context in which it arose, the term institutional racism may be too strong to use in many other contexts: for instance, since it refers to particular social institutions, it cannot simply be generalized to an entire society. One crucial way of looking at discourses of difference/discrimination is to examine the ways in which minorities or migrants actually experience racial discrimination in today's European societies. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
