 Much of the body of Tirrell's work focuses on hate speech, especially the practical effects of linguistic practices in shaping the social conditions that make genocide and other significant acts of oppression possible.Tirrell's hate speech research is distinctive in its emphasis on the inferential power of the racial epithet, holding that its power to license socially damaging inferences is more significant and more insidious) than the performative action of hurling it.Tirrell uses the tools of inferential role semantics to explain what is at issue between those who think certain deeply derogatory terms (especially racist derogations that enact oppression) should be banned (she calls them ‘Absolutists’), and those who think the terms can safely be used by members of the groups who are targeted by such words (she calls these ‘Reclaimers’).