Racialized Hate Speech in YouTube Comments on The Little Mermaid (2023): A Critical Discourse Analysis
Keywords:
racialized hate speech, digital discourse, YouTube comments, critical discourse analysis, online hostilityAbstract
This study examined the manifestation and linguistic construction of racialized hate speech in YouTube comments responding to Disney’s 2023 live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid. The casting of a Black actress as Ariel generated polarized reactions, making the trailer comment section a productive site for examining digital hostility as a discursive practice. Using qualitative content analysis informed by Mondal’s (2017) typology of hate speech and critical discourse analysis drawing on Van Dijk’s (2006) socio-cognitive approach, the study analyzed selected comments drawn from a larger corpus of approximately 78,000 comments containing discriminatory indicators. The findings reveal three primary manifestations of racialized hostility: race-based, behavior-based, and physical-based expressions. However, these categories frequently overlap and interact through recurring linguistic patterns rather than appearing as isolated forms. Hostility is often articulated through modal constructions, evaluative adjectives, negation, and semantic prosody that position racial representation as a deviation from an imagined cultural norm. Rather than relying on explicit slurs, many comments employ coded and indirect forms of antagonism that allow speakers to express exclusionary attitudes while maintaining plausible deniability. The study demonstrates how racialized hate speech operates as discursive resistance to perceived transformation of cultural norms in participatory media environments. By foregrounding the linguistic mechanisms underlying online hostility, this research contributes to applied linguistics and digital discourse studies by revealing how YouTube's algorithmically mediated environment amplifies subtle racialized hostility, while offering a framework for anti-racism education, digital literacy initiatives, and platform content moderation.
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