Tie Reproduction of Hate Speen Against Gypsies in Eksi Sozluk

Abstract

Gypsies have always been seen as "others" in the societies they live in because of their distinctive lifestyle and cultural values. While intolerant, discriminatory and prejudiced discourse consistently supported by the media causes serious damage in lives of gypsy community, this also leads to a process which can be described as othering-isolating them. In this paper, reasons of the prejudice against lifestyle and cultural values of the Gypsy Community, devastation caused by hate speech, and social lynching climate will be probed through examples. An attempt will be made to explain how and through which constructive ideological filters the language, style and content used against gypsies in the mainstream and social media create a social perception. The hate speech used by writers of the Eksi Sozluk (Sour Dictionary) Internet portal against Gypsy Community can be defined as an expression of intolerance and austereness. The extreme prejudice, intolerance and austereness in the comments; also have the potential of usurpation of rights of third parties and devastation of the culture of living together. The hate speech leads justification of discrimination, intolerance, prejudice, and even lynching against "others" in the society, besides laying the basis for all kind of attacks against the labeled and isolated group members.