You’ve got to fight to be white: the rural foundation of the new militia for race control

Abstract

In this paper, we situate the recent rise of racialized and often violent political discourse within a framework of a class-based conception of nature and property. In this theoretical work, we contribute to thinking about how Whites are racially constituted by showing how an understanding of whiteness among the far right is significantly linked to narratives surrounding rural spaces as havens of individualism and in sharp contrast to the perceived multiculturalism of the city. In developing our argument, we utilize public statements made by Ted Nugent as observable examples of this far-right, violent, and racialized rhetoric. We argue that the far right is able to create a common ground with moderate conservatives around a shared understanding of rural places as embodiments of virtuous white culture, private property, and individualism. This politicized whiteness project, we argue, helps to galvanize and strengthen a conservative coalition while simultaneously pulling their collective ideology further to the right.

Keywords:

• whiteness
• militias
• guns
• violence
• conservatism

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful for the helpful comments from the editors and anonymous reviewers, as well as comments made on earlier drafts by Ricardo Samuel.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.