This research endeavours to examine the discursive construction of blackness and whiteness by protestors spanning from Minneapolis to the entirety of America following the murder of Floyd. The data, which were analysed using the framework of van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis approach, consisted of 140 slogans collected from photos found on CNN, BBC, AP News, CBS News and Shutterstock websites. The analysis uncovered several recurring discursive strategies utilised to construct the notions of vulnerable blackness and privileged whiteness, including polarisation, concretisation, norm and value violation, victimisation, negative lexicalisation, generalisation, compassion move, self-identity descriptions, negative comparison, resource description and hyperbole. The findings revolve around ‘Othering’, which emphasises positive self-perceptions and negative perceptions of others while shedding insight into the power dynamics between White and Black people. This study offers unique perspectives on whiteness and blackness within the wider social context of the United States by addressing systemic racial inequality and societal change.
Al-Ramahi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.