Kathleen M. Blee

White-knuckle research : Emotional dynamics in fieldwork with racist activists

Current understandings of emotions as relational expressions rather than individual states have made it possible to reconsider the role of emotion in the research process. This article proposes two ways that qualitative research on social movements can benefit from greater attention to the emotional dynamics of fieldwork. First, by examining the strategic use of various emotions by informants as well as by researchers, scholars are in a better position to explore how informants and researchers jointly shape knowledge and interpretation in qualitative research. Second, exploration of emotional dynamics in interviewing relationships can be used as data to deepen understanding of both the interpretative process and of the emotional content of social movements. I examine these issues in the context of a life history project with activists in contemporary U.S. racist movements.

BECOMING A RACIST Women in Contemporary Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazi Groups

This article examines how women members of contemporary U.S. racist groups reconcile the male-oriented agendas of organized racism with understandings of themselves and their gendered self-interests. Using life history narratives and in-depth interviews, the author examines how women racial activists construct self-understandings that fit agendas of the racist movement and how they reshape understandings of movement goals to fit their own beliefs and life experiences. This analysis situates the political actions of women racists in rational, if deplorable, understandings of self and society.

Ethnographies of the Far Right

Despite the gains of far-right and racist movements in many parts of the world, they have been the subject of relatively little ethnographic research. This volume assembles work by prominent scholars on right-wing extremist movements in various places across the globe. Despite significant differences in the agendas and contexts of these groups, close-up examination of their dynamics and the motivations of their activists suggests that emotionality, culture, suspicion of outsiders, and the choices of members are key to understanding how the far right recruits members and garners support from the general population.

Racial violence in the United States

This article proposes a reconceptualization of racial violence in the United States. Departing from frameworks and definitions of racial violence that have been based largely on assessments of the intent and motivation of perpetrators, this approach incorporates as well the experiences and perceptions of victims and audiences of racial violence. Focusing on the racial fungibility of victims and the consequences of violence to victims makes possible a more rigorous exploration of the communicative, interpretive, and contextual nature of racial violence. I illustrate the utility of this reconceptualization with examples from my research on white supremacist skinheads, the Ku Klux Klan, and individual hate crimes.

Women and Organized Racial Terrorism in the United States

Racial terrorism—violence perpetrated by organized groups against racial minorities in pursuit of white and Aryan supremacist agendas—has played a significant role in U.S. society and politics. Women have been important actors in much of this violence. This article examines womens involvement in racial terrorism from the immediate post-Civil War period to the present. Although organized racial violence by women has increased over time, this trend may not continue. The strategic directions and tactical choices of Aryan and white supremacist groups are likely to alter the extent and nature of womens involvement in racial terrorism in the future.

The Microdynamics of Hate Violence: Interpretive Analysis and Implications for Responses

By examining the link between attitudes and actions by perpetrators of hate violence and interpretation of hate violence by its victims, this article demonstrates how interpretive analytic strategies can illuminate aspects of the microdynamics of hate crime violence that are difficult to understand with variable-centered analysis. Data on the relationship between perpetrator motive and actions are from semistructured interviews of female rank-and-file members of organized racist groups in the modern United States. Data on victim interpretations are from ethnographic case studies of victims and victim communities in various settings across the United States. Interpretive analyses of these data suggest new implications for formulating effective responses to hate violence.

FAMILY STRATEGIES IN A SUBSISTENCE ECONOMY: Beech Creek, Kentucky, 1850-1942

In this study of landownership, life-cycle effects, and household composition in a rural Appalachian community, we examine the nature of family strategies in a subsistence-oriented economy. Baseline ethnographic data from 1942 are linked through genealogical information to data on households from the manuscript agricultural and population censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1910. The great variability in household composition over this period indicates the necessity of observing household arrangements at many points in time. In 1880 and 1900 there was a relationship between landownership and household composition, controlling for age of the head of household, with young owners twice as likely to head complex households as young nonowners. This suggests that the family strategy of bringing additional kin into the household—usually as farm laborers—was a privilege of property ownership. Data on surplus food production show that this strategy of family extension primarily represented a way to stave off economic disaster rather than a response to increased economic opportunity. In addition, strong family group networks, observed in the 1942 ethnography, provided another survival strategy, making possible the reproduction of marginal and below-subsistence-producing farms through interhousehold economic cooperation.

Addicted to hate: Identity residual among former white supremacists

The process of leaving deeply meaningful and embodied identities can be experienced as a struggle against addiction, with continuing cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses that are involuntary, unwanted, and triggered by environmental factors. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as theories derived from recent advances in cognitive sociology, we examine how a rejected identity can persist despite a desire to change. Disengagement from white supremacy is characterized by substantial lingering effects that subjects describe as addiction. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of identity residual for understanding how people leave and for theories of the self.

The duality of spectacle and secrecy: a case study of fraternalism in the 1920s US Ku Klux Klan

Abstract White supremacist groups operate as secret societies but want to extend their racist vision to the public. This article examines the duality of secrecy and publicity in such organizations through a case study of the massive Ku Klux Klan in the United States in the 1920s. We show how characteristics of fraternalism – exclusivity, secrecy and firm boundaries – conflicted with the Klans agenda to spread a message of racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Catholicism to society at large. We draw on recent literature on cultural scenes, performance, and audience to explain how the Klan used layers of supportive practices to both secure fraternal brotherhood and shape racial politics beyond its boundaries.

Family patterns and the politicization of consumption relations

There has been little sociological research on the processes of exploitation and the politicization of relations of consumption. This study examines the role that family structure plays in the development of a class‐based politicization of consumption relations in a community. I compare communities of the Lake Superior region at the turn of the 20th century that were settled largely by the male immigrants living without families with structurally‐similar communities from the same region and time that were settled larged by married workers and their families. Using local newspapers, corporate reports and federal and state investigations, I compare the level of politicization of consumption relations in family‐settled communities with those settled by male workers. I find some relationship between family settlement patterns and the politicization of consumption in a community, but the relationship is not constant across communities. Family‐based communities do have a greater ability to organize alternatives...