The gap between racist insult and murderous act requires an audience-free space to close.

Evidence

The suspects are, of course, unaware that they are being filmed; if they knew that the police had bugged their houses we might expect them to have been more circumspect in their behavior. However, the fact is that even in areas known for their high levels of antagonism towards ethnic minorities, as in this part of South London, the successful commission of a racial murder requires that there be no witnesses. So between the performativity of the racist insult and the performance of the murderous act there opens up an all too fatal gap, a gap that can only be widened by further acts of intimidation. For what is a performance without an audience? — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1409

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘performativity’ as a lens on racist speech acts — the insult as staged performance contrasted with the private commission of violence.