Ethnic Studies Outside of the Acadamy
Identity, Race, Law, and Democracy [Social Formations of Personal Identity]
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Identity is a complex interlocking system of relationships with reality that forms an individual’s understanding of their social location. Age, sex, gender, race, class, and nationality all function harmoniously to create a position in relation to the realities of society. When I meet people, one of the first questions I am asked is “What are you?” I may respond with some painfully cliché quip such as, “I am a human, what are you?”, yet I know the very specific information the questioner is interested in obtaining; my race. At times, I am unsure of how to give the solicited information, not because I am unsure of my race, I am black, but because I am unsure of the definition of race in the mind of the person asking the question. Are they asking about my blood quantum? The legislation of race in American society has historically been obsessed with this notion of blood composition. For example, the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v Furguson, involved the idea of the one-drop rule, and the corresponding allocation of resources to those defined as white or non-white. Or are they asking about my position as an actor in a racialized social system? In a racialized social system, race is designated based on phenotype (usually), and resources are allocated based on the hierarchical position of each race. In the United States, the white “race is placed in the superior position [and] tends to receive greater economic remuneration and access to better occupations and prospects in the labor market, occupies a primary position in the political system… and receives what W.E.B Du Bois called a ‘psychological wage’”[1]. Because the races acquire different social rewards, they develop different interests, which are manifested as either struggles to transform or maintain the designated racial order[2]. These interests are collective as opposed to individual, and based on relations between racial groups. In this way, we see that my race (what I am) can be viewed as my membership of a phenotypically defined group that is subjugated with in a racialized social system, and as such, I share common interests with those also labeled as members of the same racial group. Indeed, in the United States, race is a social construct with very real implications as:
“…today the median income of black families is less than 60 percent of that of the white median income, and the median wealth of black families is much less than that of white families. In addition, black Americans on average live about six years less than white Americans,”[3].
In this way we see the costs of blackness, both economically and physically. Given the financial legacy of systems of oppression such as slavery, sharecropping and Jim Crow, and modern racism, the disparities between the income and wealth of black and white families are not hard to understand. But race also factors into the length of the very lives that we each live by shaping the landscape of diet, access to adequate healthcare and education, and by creating a “psychological toll” of blackness; a daily battle to cling to ones identity and affirm ones own humanity. The long-term effects of this continuous struggle surely affect the length and quality of human life. Evidence for this is given by a “…1990s United Nations report [that] calculated a Human Development index to assess the quality of life* for various groups and countries… Among all the countries and groups examined, white Americans ranked first in quality of life, while black Americans ranked only thirty-first…”[4] [original emphasis].
*Quality of life defined as access to social services, health care, education, in addition to life span.
Please click on the hyperlink below to download the entirety of this discussion as a Word document.
Identity, Race, Law, and Democracy
[1] Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. White Supremacy & Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Inc., 2001. 37.
[2] Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. White Supremacy & Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Inc., 2001. 38.
[3] Feagin, Joe R. Systemic Racism A Theory of Oppression. New York: Routledge, 2006. 20.
4 Feagin, Joe R. Systemic Racism A Theory of Oppression. New York: Routledge, 2006. 16.
Implications of Contemporary White Power Movements pt. 3
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In my last two papers (Implications of Contemporary White Power Movements pt. 1 and pt. 2), which focused on Thomas Robb and the Knights Party, we have seen some of the ways in which contemporary white power movements attempt to distance themselves from the redneck stereotypes and overt racism that relegate white supremacy to the fringes of a post-Civil Rights society. Most striking is the ways in which white power media attempts to mimic mainstream formats of disseminating information, and the ways in which human rights language has been co-opted by white supremacists, there by creating alternate truths in oppression (epistemologies). In reiterating the imperiled state of whiteness, thereby making the danger real, white supremacist groups are able to position themselves as victims in a racial hierarchy. This victimization is stated to be at least equal to that of African Americans (in many cases whites are positioned as “getting it worse than blacks”). To achieve this false victimization, history must be distorted in ways that create new ‘truths’ about racial relationships, which “is characteristic of the epistemology of white supremacy.”[i] The process by which history becomes perverted not only creates new relationships to truth, but also corrodes Truth as a viable societal memory. This is clearly dangerous for any society, as people lose the ability to relate to one another without an agreed upon truth around which to function – the corruption of Truth, however, is more menacing in a democratic society that bases its participation and trajectory on shared truths of the past. This immediate peril that white power poses to democracy is why it must be monitored and censored online (and in other spaces), within reason. Restricting the rights of people to voice their opinion (freedom of speech), in any form including internet space, is perhaps the most dangerous action that can be taken against democracy. However, white power is not an issue of First Amendment rights, no matter how much white supremacists (or others) would like to think that it is. Rather as Immanuel Kant shows us in our analysis below, this co-opting and corrupting of history is a violent act that threatens to weaken democracy to a breaking point. By making human rights history a matter of opinion or perspective, contemporary projects in white power are turning the moorings of American society, the events of our past, into little more than distant, obscure dreams which are open for interpretation. As Daniels puts it, “The threat posed is not the shrill panic over recruitment but rather an epistemological hazard…danger that the ideas and values of racial equality [and the historic truths that created and perpetuate inequality] will be undermined and eroded,”[ii] so far that democracy cannot continue to function. Our review of www.davidduke.com will give us examples of how history is being distorted and retold to fit contemporary white supremacy.
Please click on the hyperlink below to download the entirety of this discussion as a Word document.
Contemporary Projects in White Supremacy pt. 3
[i] Daniels, Jessie. Cyber Racism. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009. Print. 152
[ii] Ibid. 153
Implications of Contemporary White Power Movements pt. 2
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In effort to gain a more complete understanding of one major project in white supremacy, thereby creating a more complete area of knowledge, I continued my research on the Knights Party through their leader Thomas Robb this time focusing my analysis on a webcasted ‘news’ show entitled ‘This is the Klan’ (which I will henceforth abbreviate as TITK) that was originally aired in December of 2007. To elucidate the somewhat covert anti-Semitic references, made by Robb and his co-anchor (and daughter) Rachel Pendergraft, to the Jewish involvement in the topics discussed I have reviewed and analyzed a sermon of Robb’s (which was strictly audio) entitled “Were Jesus and the Apostles Jews?” I accessed both of these texts through Youtube.com; additionally both were discussed on Stormfront.org at one time or another. There were two main ideas discussed in this episode of TITK: 1, anti-white hate crimes perpetrated by people of color, and 2, America, as a country, being continuously invaded by non-white countries. It is important to note the centrality of boundary maintenance to both of these topics, as a means to protect and secure the life of the white race. Also common in the rhetoric surrounding both topics is the discussion of the allocation of taxpayer funds, specifically as deployed in ways running contrary to white interests. As the Jewish implication in the environment surrounding both anti-white hate crimes and issues over immigration was alluded to, but never specifically stated, I used the sermon by Robb to illuminate the covert anti-Semitism.
Please click on the hyperlink below to download the entirety of this discussion as a Word document.
Contemporary Projects in White Supremacy pt. 2
Implications of Contemporary White Power Movements pt. 1
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When we hear the words ‘racist’ or ‘white supremacist’ typically, a couple different stereotypes are produced in our synaptic space: white men in sheets, burning torches who speak with a drawl so thick that it could only be the product of generations of rural southern living, or the neo-Nazi skin head in steel toed boots with red laces (typically attained after spilling blood [that of someone else] for the larger race war). What is similar to both of these stereotypes is that our conceptions of white supremacist projects place them as something participated in and led by unintelligent people. Conceiving white supremacy in this way is dangerous for two reasons: first, it obscures the ways in which white supremacy functions in contemporary US mainstream society – socially, economically, and politically. Second, and of primary importance for this paper, viewing projects of white supremacy as ignorant or the product of cerebrally deficient people obscures individuals such as Thomas Robb, “…an ordained Baptist minister,”[i] and leader of the Knights Party, one of the largest contemporary Klan organization on US soil. Robb is an intelligent, [fairly] articulate individual who obfuscates the violence of his message through appeals to white cultural pride and religion. These two concepts, cultural pride and religion, underpin Robb’s position and allow him to make statements like “I don’t know that supremacist is the right word for us…”[ii]. The appeals of Robb to white cultural pride will be examined through a video found on YouTube.com titled “Who Are the Real Supremacists?”, while Robb’s foundation in religion will primarily be examined through his websites, The Official Website of the Knights Party and Thomas Robb Ministries, with the help of an article published by Betty A. Dobratz in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Please click on the hyperlink below to download the entirety of this discussion as a Word document.
Contemporary Projects in White Supremacy pt. 1
[i] The Official Website of The Knights Party, USA. The Knights Party. Web. 26 Sept. 2009. http://www.kkk.bz/nationalleaders.htm.
[ii] “Who are the real supremacists?” Thomas Robb. YouTube. Web. 28 Sept. 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAvisDvc8qs&NR=1>.
