Types of prejudice: a study of accent -ism in English in South Africa

Abstract

A relatively recent transition from Apartheid to democracy has shifted race-based policies and practices from segregation to amalgamation in South Africa. This dramatic change has led to diverse forms of prejudice to co-exist simultaneously within the country, making it an ideal setting for researching different types of prejudices. The Constitution now boasts protective legislation against discrimination, challenging prejudicial behaviours toward protected marginalised identities. Accents remain legislatively unprotected and socially underacknowledged, making it ideal for such research. In researching accent-ism, modern and aversive types of prejudice have been theorised (Roessel, Schoel, and Stahlberg Citation2020). The purpose of this research was to explore other types of prejudice, specifically for the post-modern era. Using a qualitative approach and a hermeneutic phenomenology methodology, thirty participants’ lived experiences in different environments were gathered through semi-structured interviews, thematically coded, and analyzed. The prejudicial norms and goals in different spaces and the attitudes toward non-prestigious English accents were linked to the cognitive and affective reactions towards one's own and others’ accents. The above was used to theorise overt, reversing, and non-prejudicial environments, including an inquiry into reverse prejudice.

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