Recognizing Lexical Patterns that Arise in the Wake of White Nationalist Unrest
Description/Abstract/Artist Statement
In response to a rising tide of white nationalism during and after the Charlottesville Alt-Right Rally in 2017, I undertook work of analyzing part of a corpus of language data transcribed from screenshots of white nationalist message boards. The language I linguistically coded is used to incite anger, create dissonance, communicate plans to collectively come together and make their presence known. I worked with a team of students directed by Dr. Bridget Anderson on a project named People Educating Citizens About Racism and White Nationalism (PECAR). I worked on a lexicon, which is like a dictionary of specialized Nazi vocabulary words. Some examples of a lexical items are “doxed,” a shortened form of documents, “sacked off,” is a slang word used and it means to avoid or stop doing something, and another is “goose step,” a military marching step in which the legs are not bent at the knee. This information is and will be useful in determining when white nationalists plan to surface and what their desired operation will be. The project People Educating Citizens About Racism and White Nationalism (PECAR) is important because it allows people to comprehend the words used by white nationalists. This information is also useful in knowing what lexical patterns arise in the wake of white nationalist unrest.
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Bridget Anderson
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Disciplines
Other English Language and Literature | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | United States History
Session Title
College of Arts & Letters 2
Location
Learning Commons @ Perry Library Conference Room 1311
Start Date
2-8-2020 10:15 AM
End Date
2-8-2020 11:15 AM
Recognizing Lexical Patterns that Arise in the Wake of White Nationalist Unrest
Learning Commons @ Perry Library Conference Room 1311
In response to a rising tide of white nationalism during and after the Charlottesville Alt-Right Rally in 2017, I undertook work of analyzing part of a corpus of language data transcribed from screenshots of white nationalist message boards. The language I linguistically coded is used to incite anger, create dissonance, communicate plans to collectively come together and make their presence known. I worked with a team of students directed by Dr. Bridget Anderson on a project named People Educating Citizens About Racism and White Nationalism (PECAR). I worked on a lexicon, which is like a dictionary of specialized Nazi vocabulary words. Some examples of a lexical items are “doxed,” a shortened form of documents, “sacked off,” is a slang word used and it means to avoid or stop doing something, and another is “goose step,” a military marching step in which the legs are not bent at the knee. This information is and will be useful in determining when white nationalists plan to surface and what their desired operation will be. The project People Educating Citizens About Racism and White Nationalism (PECAR) is important because it allows people to comprehend the words used by white nationalists. This information is also useful in knowing what lexical patterns arise in the wake of white nationalist unrest.