The Grammar of Exclusion: Slurs, Stigma, and the Racialization of Turks in Iran

This study employs a qualitative meta‐synthesis to explore how racial slurs function as mechanisms of symbolic violence and racial governance against Turks in Iran. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2017 and 2024, the analysis shows how slurs, often framed as jokes, operate across schools, workplaces, media, and digital spaces, embedding exclusion into daily life. These slurs discipline Turkish identity, reinforcing a linguistic and cultural hierarchy that privileges Persianness. Building on Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence and Butler's notion of performativity, the study argues that slurs are not just reflective but constitutive acts that regulate national belonging and racialization. Adapting Alcoff's idea of “ethnorace,” it reveals that Turkishness in Iran is racialized through language, regional affiliation, and perceived disloyalty to Persian national identity. This racialization is deeply gendered: Turkish men are stereotyped as aggressive, while Turkish women are romanticized as obedient and domestic, sustaining patriarchal‐nationalist norms. Extending frameworks of stigma and colorblind racism beyond Western contexts, the study shows how non‐phenotypical markers of difference produce durable systems of exclusion, normalizing racism through humor, denial, and institutional complicity.