| Abstrakt: |
Abstract:“Virtue signaling” is widely derided on the Left as a kind of “performative allyship,” as an inauthentic and unproductive way to challenge injustice. Against this view, this brief provocation mounts a partial defense of “virtue signaling” by reading the practice both through Erving Goffman’s work on stigma and impression management as well as within the larger context of the 2020 uprisings for racial justice. The piece suggests that virtue signaling should not be so easily dismissed, arguing that the practice contributes to a larger, counterhegemonic project aimed at reversing the currents of stigmatization to the benefit of minoritarian political movements. |
