Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Issues of race, racism, and social justice are under-studied topics in this journal. This Prologue, and our Special Issue (S.I.) more broadly, highlights ways that language and social psychology (LSP) approaches can further our understanding of race, racism, and social justice, while suggesting more inclusive directions for their theoretical development. Acknowledging the inspiration from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, we begin by discussing our deeply-held personal and emotional connections to recent societal events, including police violence against innocent Black civilians and the prevalence of anti-Asian hate. What follows, then, is: a historical analysis of past JLSP publications on these issues, a proposal for more intersections between LSP and communication social justice research, and an overview of the BLM movement together with the four articles that follow. We conclude by advocating for individual and institutional practices that can create socially-just changes by LSP scholars in the academy.

Keywords

social justice race racism ethnicity Black Lives Matter leximancer computational content analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrams

. (2021). The fight against racism must continue. Monitor on Psychology, 52(1), 48–52. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/01/trends-fight-racism

Adams

Dobles

Gómez

L. H.

Kurtiş

Molina

L. E

. (2015). Decolonizing psychological science: Introduction to the special thematic section. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 213–238. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.564

Afifi

W. A.

Cornejo

(2020). #CommSoWEIRD: The question of sample representativeness in interpersonal communication research. In Doerfel

M. L.

Gibbs

J. L.

(Eds.), Organizing inclusion: Moving diversity from demographics to communication processes (pp. 238–259). Routledge.

Androne

Spencer

L. G

. (2020). The sacredness of black life: Ritual structure, intersectionality, and the image of God. Journal of Communcation & Religion, 43(3), 18–28.

Angus

Gallois

(2017). New methodological approaches to intergroup communication. In Giles

Harwood

(Eds.), The Oxford encyclopedia of intergroup communication (Vol. 2, pp. 163–179). Oxford University Press.

Angus

Rintel

Wiles

. (2013) Making sense of big text: A visual-first approach for analyzing text data using leximancer and discursis. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(3), 261–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2013.774186

Augoustinos

Every

. (2007). The language of “race” and prejudice: A discourse of denial, reason, and liberal-practical politics. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 26(2), 123–141. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X07300075

Black Lives Matter. (2021). About. Retrieved from: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/

Bond

C. J.

Whop

L. J.

Singh

Kajlich

. (2020). Now we say black lives matter bu, T… the fact of the matter is, we just black matter to them. Medical Journal of Australia, 213(6), 248–250. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50727

10.

Booker

Treisman

. (2021, March 13). A year after Breonna Taylor’s killing, family says there’s ‘no accountability’. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/13/973983947/a-year-VVafter-breonna-taylors-killing-family-says-theres-no-accountability

11.

Boromisza-Habashi

. (2010). How are political concepts ‘essentially’ contested? Language and Communication, 30(4), 276–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2010.04.002

12.

Buchanan

Bui

Patel

J. K

. (2020, July 3). Black lives matter may be the largest movement in the U.S. History. The New York Times . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html

13.

Cárdenas

Verkuyten

. (2021). Foreign language usage and national and European identification in the Netherlands. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 40(3), 328–353. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X20979631

14.

Chakravartty

Kuo

Grubbs

McIlwain

. (2018). #Communicationsowhite. Journal of Communication, 68(2), 254–266. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy003

15.

Chang

. (2021, March 19). For Asian American women, misogyny and racism are inseparable, sociologist says. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/19/979336512/for-asian-american-women-misogyny-and-racism-are-inseparable-sociologist-says

16.

Chatelain

Asoka

. (2015). Women and black lives matter. Dissent, 62(3), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.1353/dss.2015.0059

17.

Cheon

B. K.

Melani

Ying-yi Hong

Y-y.

(2020). How USA-centric is psychology? An archival study of implicit assumptions of generalizability of findings to human nature based on origins of study samples. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(7), 928–937. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620927269

18.

Clément

(1996). Special issue: The social psychology of intergroup communication. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X960153001

19.

Clément

(2007). Special issue: Language and discrimination. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 26(2).https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X07300073

20.

Closson

. (2020, October 14). Amy cooper falsely accused black bird-watcher in 2nd 911 conversation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/nyregion/amy-cooper-false-report-charge.html

21.

Collins

(2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.

22.

Collins

. (2020, May 21). Ahmaud Arbery was lynched. Vox. https://www.vox.com/21263899/ahmaud-arbery-lynched-video-mcmichael-glynn-county-georgia

23.

Coupland

. (Ed.). (1988). Dialect in use: Sociolinguistic variation in Cardiff English. University of Wales Press.

24.

Cretchley

Rooney

Gallois

. (2010). Mapping a forty-year history with leximancer: Themes and concepts in JCCP. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41(3), 318–328. doi.10.1177/0022022110366105 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110366105

25.

Davis

A. Y.

(2016). Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the foundations of a movement. Haymarket books.

26.

Davis

S. M

. (2015). The “strong black woman collective”: A developing theoretical framework for understanding collective communication practices of black women. Women’s Studies in Communication, 38(1), 20–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2014.953714

27.

Davis

S. M

. (2019). When sistahs support sistahs: A process of supportive communication about racial microaggressions among black women. Communication Monographs, 86(2), 133–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2018.1548769

28.

De Genova

. (2018). The “migrant crisis” as racial crisis: Do Black Lives Matter in Europe? Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41(10), 1765–1782. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1361543

29.

Demsas

Ramirez

. (2021, March 16). The history of tensions—and solidarity—between black and Asian American communities, explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/22321234/black-asian-american-tensions-solidarity-history

30.

Dixon

T. L.

Schell

Giles

Drogos

. (2018). The influence of race in police-civilian interactions: A content analysis of interactions taken during Cincinnati police traffic stops. Journal of Communication, 58(3), 530–549. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.00398.x

31.

Dragojevic

Fasoli

Cramer

Rakic

. (2021). Toward a century of language attitudes research: Looking back and moving forward. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 40(1), 60–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X20966714

32.

Dubé-Simard

. (1983). Genesis of social categorization, threat to identity and perceptions of social justice: Their role in intergroup communication. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2(2-3-4), 183–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X8300200207

33.

Edgar

A. N.

Johnson

A. E.

(2018). The struggle over black lives matter and All lives matter. Rowman & Littlefield.

34.

Flaccus

. (2021, May 4). As pandemic ebbs, an old fear is new again: Mass shootings. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/pandemic-ebbs-fear-mass-shootings-77488354

35.

Formanowicz

Suitner

. (2020). Special issue: Sounding strange: Origins, consequences, and boundary conditions of socio-phonetic discrimination. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19884354

36.

Frey

L. R.

Carragee

K. M

. (Eds.). (2012). Communication activism: Vol. 3. Struggling for social justice amidst difference. Hampton Press.

37.

Frey

L. R.

Carragee

K. M

. (Eds.). (2007b). Communication activism: Vol. 2. Media and performance activism. Hampton Press.

38.

Frey

L. R.

Carragee

K. M

. (Eds.). (2007a). Communication activism: Vol. 1. Communication for social change. Hampton Press.

39.

Frey

L. R.

Pearce

W. B.

Pollock

M. A.

Artz

Murphy

B. A. O

. (1996). Looking for justice in all the wrong places: On a communication approach to social justice. Communication Studies, 47(1–2), 110–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510979609368467

40.

Frey

R. L.

Palmer

D. L.

(Eds.). (2014). Teaching communication activism: Communication education for social justice (pp. 1–42). Hampton Press.

41.

Garza

(2016). A herstory of the #blacklivesmatter movement. In Hobson

(Ed.), Are all the women still white? Rethinking race, expanding feminisms (pp. 23–28). SUNY Press.

42.

Gasiorek

Giles

Holtgraves

Robbins

. (2012). Celebrating thirty years of the JLSP : Analysis and prospects. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 31(4), 361–375. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X12446614

43.

Giles

Bourhis

R. Y

. (1975). Linguistic assimilation: West Indians in Cardiff. Language Sciences, 38(December), 9–12. ERIC #: EJ132767.

44.

Giles

Bourhis

R. Y

. (1976). Voice and racial categorization in Britain. Communication Monographs, 43(2), 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637757609375921

45.

Giles

Hansen

Angus

Gallois

. (2021a). Prologue: History, themes, analysis, and rationale. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 40(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X20978440

46.

Giles

Harwood

(2018). (Eds.). The Oxford encyclopedia of intergroup communication (vols. 1 & 2). Oxford University Press.

47.

Giles

Hill

S. L.

Maguire

E. R..

Angus

(2021b). Conclusion: New directions in policing and communication. In Giles

Maguire

E. R.

Hill

S. L.

. (Eds.), The Rowman & Littlefield handbook of policing, communication, and society (pp. 371–390). Rowman & Littlefield.

48.

Giles

(Ed.). (2012b). The handbook of intergroup communication. Routledge.

49.

Giles

Maass

(Eds.). (2016). Advances in intergroup communication. Peter Lang.

50.

Giles

Maguire

E. R.

Hill

S. L.

(Eds.). (2021). The Rowman & Littlefield handbook of policing, communication, and society. Rowman & Littlefield.

51.

Giles

. (2012a). Taking stock after 30 years: JLSP genesis and prologue. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 31(4), 355–360. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X20978440

52.

Hammack

P. L.

(Ed.). (2018). The Oxford handbook of social psychology and social justice. Oxford University Press.

53.

Harmon

Tavernise

(2020, June 12). One big difference about George Floyd protests: Many white faces. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/george-floyd-white-protesters.html

54.

Hegarty

. (2019). How do we ‘other’? The Psychologist, 32(May), 48–51. Retrieved from: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-32/may-2019/how-do-we-other

55.

Hendrix

K.G

. (2021). There are no awards for surviving racism, sexism, and ageism in the academy: Contemplations of a senior faculty member. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, 18(3), 246–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2020.1865551

56.

Hill

S. L.

Giles

Maguire

E. M

. (2021). VOICES: A theory-driven intervention for improving relationships between police and the public. Policing: An International Journal, 44(5), 786–799. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2020-0154

57.

Hoang

T. M. H.

Neville

H. A.

Poteat

V. P.

Spanierman

L. B

. (2021). Examination of social justice behaviors: Testing an integrated model. Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology, 12(2), 34–53. https://doi.org/10.33043/JSACP.12.2.34-53

58.

Hodge

(2018). African American discourse analysis. In Coyners

J. L.

Jr (Ed.), Africana methodology: A social study of research, triangulation, and meta-theory (pp. 149–169). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

59.

Huffman

. (2014). Imagining social justice with a communicative framework. Journal of Social Justice, 4, 1–14.

60.

Jackson

Trevisan

Pullen

Silk

(2020). Special issue: Sport communication and social justice. Communication & Sport, 8(4–5).

61.

Jackson

S. J

. (2016). (Re)Imagining intersectional democracy from black feminism to hashtag activism. Women’s Studies in Communication, 39(4), 375–379. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2016.1226654

62.

Jensen

K. B.

(2021). A theory of communication and social justice. Routledge.

63.

Johnson

. (2017). A communication approach to social justice: Midwest college campus protests. Howard Journal of Communications, 28(2), 212–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2017.1283261

64.

Jost

. (1995). Negative illusions: Conceptual clarification and psychological evidence concerning false consciousness. Political Psychology, 16(2), 397–424. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791837

65.

Jost

J. T.

Kay

A. C.

(2010). Social justice: History, theory, and research. In Fiske

S. T.

Gilbert

D. T.

Lindzey

(Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 1122–1165). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy002030

66.

Kincaid

. (2018). Debating the reality of race, caste, and ethnicity. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 48(2), 139–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393117742878

67.

Lauer

Beaty

. (2021, March 21). Private Facebook group for cops spent the year criticizing officers who marched with black lives matter protesters. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-private-cop-group-facebook- criticize-20210322-kbejzqxulzg3xibpwt5kojrnnu-story.html

68.

Lawless

B. J.

Chen

Y-W.

(2021). Teaching social justice: Critical tools for the intercultural communication classroom. Rowman & Littlefield.

69.

Lewin

(1951). Resolving social conflicts. Harper & Row (original work published in 1939).

70.

Maqbool

. (2020, July 10). Black lives matter: From social media post to global movement. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53273381

71.

Martin

T.W.

Yoon

. (2021, March 31). From BTS to Britain, anti-Asian racism gets new attention outside the U.S. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/from-bts-to-britain-anti-asian-racism-gets-new-attention-outside-the-u-s-11617201163

72.

Mason

(2020). Reporting black lives matters: Deaths in custody journalism in Australia. Pacific Journalism Review: Te Koakoa, 26(2), 202–220. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v26i2.1129

73.

Miller

. (2021, August 21). Wray says FBI domestic terrorism caseload has ‘exploded’ since last year. The Hill . https://thehill.com/policy/technology/573285-wray-says-fbi-domestic-terrorism-caseload-has-exploded-since-last-year

74.

Munshi

Kurian

(2021). Public relations and sustainable citizenship: Representing the unrepresented. Routledge.

75.

Nakayama

T. K.

(2020). Special issue: Whiteness and communication. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, 17(2), 199–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2020.1770821

76.

O’Kane

. (2020, June 8). “Say their names”: The list of people injured or killed in officer-involved incidents is still growing. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/say-their-names-list-people-injured-killed-police-officer-involved-incidents/

77.

Ono

K. A.

Pham

V. N.

(2009). Asian Americans and the media. Polity.

78.

Paul

G. D.

Borton

I. M.

(2021). Creating restorative justice: A communication perspective of justice, restoration, and community. Rowman & Littlefield.

79.

Pezzullo

P. C

. (2001). Performing critical interruptions: Stories, rhetorical invention, and the environmental justice movement. Western Journal of Communication, 65(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310109374689

80.

Ransby

. (2015). The class politics of black lives matter. Dissent, 62(4), 31–34. https://doi.org/10.1353/dss.2015.0071

81.

Ransby

(2018). Making all black lives matter: Reimagining freedom in the twenty-first century. University of California Press.

82.

Richardson

A. V

. (2019). Dismantling respectability: The rise of new womanist communication models in the era of black lives matter. Journal of Communication, 69(2), 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz005

83.

Romo

. (2020). Minneapolis Council moves to defund police, establish ‘holistic’ public safety force. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/26/884149659/minneapolis-council-moves-to-defund-police-establish-holistic-public-safety-forc

84.

Salter

P. S.

Adams

Perez

M. J

. (2018). Racism in the structure of everyday worlds: A cultural-psychological perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 150–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417724239

85.

Sambaraju

McVittie

(Eds.). (2021). Mobilizing race and racism: Visible race and invisible racism. British Journal of Social Psychology.

86.

Scharrer

Ramasubramanian

(2021). Quantitative research methods: The power of numbers for social justice. Routledge.

87.

Sciubba

Shrikant

Williamson

. (2021). Guest blog: EM/CA for racial justice. Research on Language and Social Interaction – Blog. https://rolsi.net/2021/06/02/guest-blog-em-ca-for-racial-justice/

88.

Shrikant

. (2018). “There’s no such thing as Asian”: A membership categorization analysis of cross-cultural adaptation in an Asian American business community. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 11(4), 286–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2018.1478986

89.

Shrikant

. (2020). Membership categorization analysis of racism in an online discussion among neighbors. Language in Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404520000846

90.

Shrikant

. (2021). Cultural difference as a resource for arguments in institutional interactions. Communication Monographs, 88(2), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2020.1776351

91.

Shrikant

Sierra

. (2021). ‘Nasty question’ and ‘fake news’: Metadiscourse as a resource for denying accusations of racism in Donald Trump’s presidential press events. Howard Journal of Communications. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2021.1966555

92.

Smith

A. E.

Humphreys

M. S

. (2006). Evaluation of unsupervised semantic mapping of natural language with leximancer concept mapping. Behavior Research Methods, 38(2), 262–279. https://doi.10.3758/BF03192778 https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192778

93.

Sorrells

(2022). Intercultural communication: Globalization and social justice, 3rd. ed. Sage.

94.

Taylor

K-Y.

(2016). From# BlackLivesMatter to black liberation. Haymarket Books.

95.

Taylor

K-Y

. (2021, August 6). Did last summer’s black lives matter protests change anything? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/did-last-summers-protests-change-anything

96.

Taylor

V. J.

Brannon

T. N.

Valladares

(2019). Intergroup conflict through a sociocultural lens: How collective histories and memories impact present-day intergroup understandings and misunderstandings. In Mukherjee

Salter

P. S.

(Eds.), History and collective memory from the margins (pp. 3–30). Nova Science.

97.

Tiejte

(2015). Introduction: Social justice. In Thompson

(Ed.), Encyclopedia of diversity and social justice (pp. 3–10). Rowan & Littlefield.

98.

Tyler

H. F.

Maguire

E. R.

(2021). Newsworthiness of police: Changes in print media coverage of police post-Ferguson. In Giles

Maguire

E. R.

Hill

S. L.

(Eds.), The Rowman & Littlefield handbook of policing, communication, and society (pp. 245–259). Rowman & Littlefield.

99.

Tyler

T. R.

Goff

P. A.

MacCoun

R. J

. (2015). The impact of psychological science on policing in the United States: Procedural justice, legitimacy, and effective law enforcement. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(3), 75–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100615617791

100.

Tyrell

Neville

Causadias

J. M.

Cokley

Adams-Wiggins

(Eds.). (2022). Foundational contributions of black scholars in psychology. American Psychologist.

101.

Verkuyten

Yogeeswaran

. (2017). The social psychology of intergroup toleration: A roadmap for theory and research. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 72–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868316640974

102.

Verkuyten

Yogeeswaran

Adelman

. (2019). Intergroup toleration and its implications for culturally diverse societies. Social Issues and Policy Review, 13(1), 5–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12051

103.

Verkuyten

Yogeeswaran

Adelman

. (2020). Toleration and prejudice-reduction: Two ways of improving intergroup relations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(2), 239–255. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2624

104.

Walker

(2004). In search of our mothers’ gardens: Womanist prose. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

105.

Wanzer-Serrano

. (2019). Rhetoric’s ra(e/ist) problems. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 105(4), 465–476. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2019.1669068

106.

White

K. C

. (2021). Oceanic negroes: Communicating Pacific blackness down, out, and under. International Journal of Communication, 15, 4184–4207.

107.

Whitehead

K. A.

Stokoe

(2015). Special issue: Producing and responding to –isms in interaction. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 34(4).

108.

Wilkins

K. G.

Kim

M. D.

(2021). Advocating communication for social justice. In Melkote

S. R.

Singhal

(Eds.), Handbook of communication and development (pp. 172–189). Edward Elgar.

109.

Witte

. (2021, October 9). In New Mexico, a bold experiment aims to take police out of the equation for mental health calls. The Washington Post . https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mental-health-community-safety/2021/10/08/369794d0-26bd-11ec-a6ad-9ee7deda7f34_story.html

110.

Wood

. (2020, May 27). What’s behind the COVID-19 racial disparity? The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/we-dont-know-whats-behind-covid-19-racial - disparity/612106/

111.

Zitamann

Loreth

Reininger

K. M.

Simon

. (2021). Does respect foster tolerance? (Re)analyzing and synthesizing data from a large research project using meta-analytic techniques. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Advance Online: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211024422

Language and Social Psychology Approaches to Race,Racism,and Social Justice: Analyzing the Past and Revealing Ways Forward

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References