Missing the target: group practices that launch and deflect slurs

• A group levying a slur hopes to cause psychological harm and eliminate a threat.
• Targets of slurs may develop strategies to minimize the negative effects of slurs.
• African Americans exemplify a protective response to slurring.
• Protective strategies enhance the self-image of targeted groups.

Slurring by a group is generally an outcome of a group ideology that casts the targeted group in a negative light, attributing undesirable traits to every member of the group. The slur stands in as representative of those traits. A group levying a slur hopes to inflict psychological damage on the targeted group, minimizing or eradicating competition and potentially boosting the self-image of the group inflicting the slur. African Americans, the group that has been most heavily targeted by slurs, have developed strategies to lessen or eliminate the negative effects of slurring. Examining the African American response to slurring can shed light on how other targeted groups might respond.