What bigots do say: A reply to DiFranco

RAMIRO CASO; LO GUERCIO, NICOLÁS FRANCISCO

Thought

Wiley-Blackwell

Lugar: Malden; Año: 2016 vol. 5 p. 265 - 274

Neutral Counterpart Theories of slurs hold that the truth-conditional contribution of a slur is the same as the truth-conditional contribution of its neutral counterpart. In (2015), DiFranco argues that these theories, even if plausible for single-word slurs like ´kike´ and ´nigger´, are not suitable for complex slurs such as ´slanty-eyed´ and ´curry muncher´, figurative slurs like ´Jewish American Princess´, or iconic slurring expressions like ´ching chong´. In this paper we argue that these expressions do not amount to genuine counterexamples to neutral counterpart theories of slurs. We provide a positive characterization of DiFranco´s examples that doesn´t deviate from the core of those theories