‘You’re not a better person, but you look like you are.’ Hate speech and privilege: contributions from a participatory research study with teenagers

ABSTRACT The current expansion of hate speech in different areas of public life poses a challenge for educators committed to developing their praxis from an intercultural approach. In this sense, the social privileges enjoyed by part of the population are exploited through these discourses with political and economic objectives that are incompatible with collective justice. To delve deeper into this issue, a participatory research study was carried out among 52 adolescents and nine educators with the aim of identifying the scenarios, agents and strategies related to these discourses, as well as to create collective strategies to address this social problem. Over a period of 9 months, dialogic workshops were conducted to identify relevant issues that would facilitate a pedagogical approach to addressing hate speech. This article presents results that clarify the role of privilege in educational reflection and action in the face of hate speech. It concludes with some reflections, questions and possible guidelines to promote critical literacy in educational scenarios that help question hate speech when it is based on the defence of inequality through naturalised privileges.