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- Convenor:
-
Alex Hinton
(Rutgers University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 7 April, -
Time zone: America/Chicago
Short Abstract:
This papers in this panel will explore the anthropology of white supremacy, which is one of the most pressing public issues of our time and one that psychological anthropology has not deeply considered.
Long Abstract:
In recent years, the long-standing issue of white supremacy has risen back to the forefront of public debate. Discussion have ranged from the political (Donald Trump's white power populist themes) to the structural (the calls for addressing systemic racism after the killing of George Floyd) to the institutional (an accounting for structural racism in every corner of society, ranging from ice cream truck jingles to the corridors of anthropology). The papers in this panel will explore these public anthropology issues drawing on the insights of psychological anthropology and related conceptual perspectives.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 7 April, 2021, -Jayme Jenkins (Duquesne)
Paper short abstract:
Rooted in interviews with hate group disengagement workers from Sweden, Germany, and the United States, a formulation of supremacy and analysis of both carceral and transformative justice interventions will be offered, toward a more effective discussion of culturally therapeutic change work.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation will discuss the participation action oriented ethnographic dissertation research of the presenter, which began as an observation that current mental health care training models and competencies toward licensure lack training material or protocol for working with the human trait of supremacy, particularly in its most harmful manifestation as hateful violence and hate group membership. Rooted in interviews with hate group disengagement workers from Sweden, Germany, and the United States, who work directly with hate group members attempting to exit the supremacist lifestyle, the current research integrates genealogies of supremacist subjectification in the (post)Neoliberal era and historical understandings of supremacy, such as during the antebellum advent of populism and the rise of Nazi Germany. Accepting supremacy to be inherent to the human condition and deeply resonate with environmental forces, a formulation of supremacy will be offered through the lens of its historic mutability. Carceral interventions, which tend to focus on the criminality of hate crimes and terrorism will be considered alongside transformative justice intervention models, toward a more effective discussion of culturally therapeutic change work. Economic conditions, viz., (post)Neoliberalism, socially traumatic events, technological advancement, and a genealogy of authoritarianism in state and family are each considered for their impact on the subjectification of supremacist and authoritarian thinkers. Lastly, some lines of flight are sketched in a vision of change work with individuals when supremacy presents itself in the session room, classroom, or other meaningful social relationship.
Jennifer Hamann (Duquesne University)
Paper short abstract:
Female empowerment in the Middle East remains a hotly contested topic. As a white Western woman from the United States, I reflect on how my privilege impacted my Omani informants' views of their gendered roles and their gendered possibilities. All via ethnography and the popular sport of football.
Paper long abstract:
Non-governmental agencies and non-profit human rights groups have continued to define and proliferate the Western conception of the term” female empowerment” with little consideration for cross-cultural values of what empowerment means to the women themselves. Perhaps the best way to explore emic notions of female empowerment and gender roles for women whose identity formation does not fit within the Western paradigm of empowerment is to dive into an area of society where women are both nonexistent and culturally discouraged. For women in Muscat, Oman, and throughout the Middle East, one major area is athletics, more specifically, football. Research stemming from advocacy anthropology of a young Omani girls’ football team has revealed that female empowerment, or rather a woman’s positive sense of identity formation, is not a statistic that can be measured and judged cross-culturally. Rather, the notion of empowerment is what Naila Kabeer calls a woman’s choice perceptions and feelings. Football may not reveal female empowerment in all its subjective facets, but it does unravel the cultural layers in Omani society that show how women feel empowered and what globalization is contributing to this change in perceived empowerment.
Alex Hinton (Rutgers University)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US (NYU, 2021), this paper argues that, rather than being exceptional, the Trump presidency was symptomatic of the US's long history of racism and systemic white supremacy, genocide, and atrocity crimes.
Paper long abstract:
If many people were shocked by Trump’s 2016 election, many more were stunned when, months later, white power extremists took to the streets of Charlottesville chanting “Blood and Soil” and “Jews will not replace us!” Like Trump, the Charlottesville marchers were dismissed as aberrations --the momentary appearance of “racists” and “haters” who did not represent the real United States. Rather than being exceptional, these events are symptoms of the country’s long history of racism and systemic white supremacy, genocide, and atrocity crimes. And there is a high likelihood that such violence will occur here again. This reality, the author argues in a just published book, It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US (NYU, 2021), is a key lesson we learned from the Trump presidency. It is also a lesson that is connected to the white power frame of white genocide, or the feared extinction of the white race that legitimates race war and even the genocide of non-whites in response. This paper discusses the origins of this idea and its connection to the pre– and post–civil rights history of white power extremism—ranging from the systemic white supremacy that informed settler colonial genocide and slavery to the ideology of contemporary groups like the alt-right. The paper concludes by noting how the idea of white genocide was directly mobilized not just by groups like the alt-right, but mainstream media and the Trump administration.