“It Is Necessary to Try Our Best to Learn the Language”: a Greek Case Study of Internalized Racism in Antiracist Discourse

Abstract

Greek national discourse promotes linguistic and cultural homogenization within Greek borders often through racism against migrants. Racist homogenizing practices are not always explicit but are quite often “liquid,” namely, covert, ambiguous, and hard to trace. The effective promotion of national homogenization not only naturalizes linguistic and cultural assimilation but may also infiltrate antiracist discourse and eventually lead to migrants’ internalization of racism. Within the framework of critical discourse analysis, we investigate how and why migrants may align themselves with national discourse and internalize discrimination against themselves. To this end, this case study analyzes an article written by a young migrant in Greece and published in a newspaper of leftwing and antiracist orientation. By exploiting the problem-solution pattern and the concept of face, our analysis reveals that the migrant author appears to accept the expectations and impositions of national homogenizing discourse. Concurrently, racism emerges as liquid, since the text expressing the author’s internalized racism is published in an antiracist newspaper. The article reproduces racist standpoints typical of the dominant national discourse in a way (and in a context) that disguises such standpoints and deflects any antiracist criticism potentially raised against them. Thus, the hegemony of Greek national discourse is further reinforced.