Elite Discourse and Racism

VERSION 1In this volume van Dijk introduces a new multidisciplinary discourse approach to the study of elite racism. Based on his own empirical studies he shows that elites play a primary role in the reproduction of ethnic dominance and racism in Western societies.Through influential text and talk - from political rhetoric to private conversations to children''s television - elites manufacture the consent needed to legitimize their own power and their leadership in maintaining the dominance of the majority ethnic group. The author offers crucial insights into the more subtle discursive dimensions of modern elite racism which often presents itself positively in the guise of tolerance as manifested in politics business academia education and the media. His research includes findings from Europe North America South Africa Australia and New Zealand.Van Dijk''s critical theory of elite racism is an important breakthrough of interest to researchers and students in a wide range of areas including race relations discourse analysis communication studies linguistics cognitive and social psychology sociology and politics.VERSION 2In this new book Teun A van Dijk takes a critical approach to the study of prejudice and discrimination by focusing on the role of elites in the reproduction of racism. The main thesis of this original study is that racism in North America and Europe is primarily `top down'' and preformulated by the elites and not only - as the elites would have it - a `popular'' phenomenon.The book opens with a wide-ranging study of the ways parliamentarians in the Netherlands Germany France the UK and the USA debate immigration refugees and civil rights subtly contributing to the negative image of minorities. It goes on to examine how managers of international corporations talk about affirmative action and minority employment. A chapter on racism in social science high school textbooks focuses on the educational representation of minorities and is followed by an analysis of what academic sociology introductions used in the UK and the USA write about ethnic groups and relations. The influence of these political corporate educational and academic elites and their text and talk is finally studied in relation to the fundamental role of the press in the reproduction of racism.Van Dijk''s critical theory of elite racism is of interest to researchers and advanced students in the fields of ethnic//black studies sociology anthropology communication discourse analysis and linguistics as well as other disciplines across the humanities and the social sciences.