Linguaggio e discriminazione: per una pragmatica degli ultimi

Discrimination and social injustice have become interesting issues in philosophy of language. Scholars focus on hate speech, namely words and sentences expressing or communicating contempt, hate or disparagement towards individuals and groups of individuals on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation. The aim of this paper is to show that hate speech plays two distinct roles: by using hate speech, a speaker may directly attack, persecute or degrade targets, but also incite and promote discrimination, hate and violence, performing an act of propaganda. Racist, homophobic and misogynous expressions are a way of affirming a cultural, social and political identity, strengthening membership to the dominant group, and reinforcing social hierarchy.