Permission to Speak the Discourse of Difference: A Case Study

A case study is presented in which a public speaker drew attention to social differences among the parties present in a speech event. Subsequent public discourse was directed to the propriety of the speaker's conduct. I show how differing rules for public discourse were expressed by those who challenged the propriety of the speaker's conduct and by the speaker himself in defense of his conduct. The juxtaposition of the speaker's accounting and the challengers' critique exposes distinctive rules for the conduct of public discourse with regard to how social differences may be talked about in contemporary public discourse.