Maurophobia through racist humor in Spanish social media: a multimodal critical discourse analysis of the neologism ‘Youthland’

Abstract This study examines the use of verbal and visual elements on X in Spain to express racist humor that creates an opposition between the in-group –Spanish/European citizens and those who support anti-immigrant rhetoric – and the out-group –Moroccans (north) African Muslim immigrants, and those who legitimize them. Drawing on multimodal approaches (Machin, David & Andrea Mayr. 2012. How to do critical discourse analysis: A multimodal introduction . London: SAGE) to critical discourse analysis, the study analyzes the ways in which racist humor reflects social hierarchies on social media. The goal is to examine the humorous use of the neologisms ‘Jovenlandia’ (Youthland) and ‘jovenlandés’ (Youthlandian) on social media in Spain to ridicule Muslim immigrants and legitimize Maurophobia (aversion to Moors) (Zapata-Barrero, Ricard. 2006. The Muslim community and the Spanish tradition. Maurophobia as a fact, and impartiality as a desideratum. In Tariq Modood, Anna Triandafyllidou & Ricard Zapata Barrero (eds.). Multiculturalism, Muslims and citizenship: A European approach , 143–162. London: Routledge). The analysis is based on a corpus of 3,977 posts during the 2023 Spanish election campaign (May 29th – July 26th 2023) and explores the online social dynamics through which negative and exclusionary representations of immigrants are reproduced. The findings indicate that the use of ‘Jovenlandia’ primarily encompasses Morocco, followed by northern African countries, and ultimately the entirety of Africa. The posts frame the social context in terms of geographical, socio-cultural, religious, and ideological antagonisms between the in-group and the out-group.