Labeling Theory As A Part Of The Symbolic Interactionism Paradigm

Introduction

The white power movement has been an impactful movement for hundreds of years in the United States, it’s racial motives has effected the way minority races are perceived in the country and how they live their day to day lives. This movement has increased and decreased in waves over the years, and embraces the idea of a perfect world being all white, and having a dominate society of all white people. In a labeling theory perspective, this paper will look at how the white power movement changes the thought of others, and what the movement means to other races. The labeling theory is under the Symbolic interactionism paradigm, which gives an individual approach to sociological issues, such as the white power movement and the paramilitary style organization of it.

Paradigm/Theory

Symbolic interactionism is a frame of reference in order to see how individuals react with one another to create a sense of community in the world. This, in return, is a way for people to interact with each other and shape behavior in communities. The paradigm can explain how people attach meanings to their behaviors, and what they are, along with conflict and peace being met with these meanings and behaviors. This paradigm is separated into many theories, one being the Labeling theory.

The labeling theory is a subset of Symbolic Interactionism. Labeling theory works in a few ways. The first way is how people see someone and put them inside certain stereotypical bubbles. For example, racist stereotypes can often be given to people based on first impressions of them. The labeling theory requires a type of discrimination to be present in order to explain the research. Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent in an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms. The labeling theory can describe how the white power movement has an effect on the way people perceive the movement and what their opinions can reflect into society.

Foundation

The selected topic chosen for us was the white power movement and the paramilitary organization that it contains. During the course of the semester, I have found research articles to support the comments of the video we were assigned to watch. These scholarly sources can help explain using symbolic interactionism and the labeling theory, how the movement and its organization method are perceived in society, and how they run as a whole.

The video assigned was about a book written by Katherine Belew, and she is giving her opinions on the white power movement and how it effects society. In the video, she describes the movement as a leaderless existence, and with this she is saying that the leaderless makes the movement less detectable, seeing one or a group of people causing the event at a time. The labeling theory can be put into use here as the leaderless movement still caused people to label other as members of the KKK or the white power movement. The leaderless point of it was to create a more discreet following to build up their membership, which caused the amount of people realizing the movement to go up slower. Once there was an established movement, they instilled beliefs onto the following and had identifiers such as the KKK’s white robes.

Also in the video, Belew talks about the Turner Diaries, which were used to instill white supremacist views on those in the movement. The turner diaries were sort of used as a law book for the movement. Belew goes on to explain the role the women played in these movements. One main point taken from the video was that women were the underground of the movement, often organizing events and leading from behind. Women were not encouraged to go outside that were believers in white supremacy because the men were worried the white birth rate would decline if women were to be let outside and they could be fornicating with other races. This discrimination of creating a pure race by keeping women indoors shows a true form of racism behind the movement. The labeling theory requires form of racism to be evident. Showing that the white power movement didn’t want other races being introduced to the families is showing the racist intentions behind the movement.

In the article written by Robert Futrell, Bryan Bubolz and Pete Simi, they talk about how parents in activist groups, raise their children into the movement. Their main idea of this article was that, every time a parent of the group, recites racist or subjective things in the house, the child is learning these beliefs to be true. The idea of parenting children and instilling their beliefs onto the children, is an example of the parents using their children as props in their activist movement. When white power Aryan parents raise their kids to be part of the White power movement, they are instilling racist ideals, and the idea that the right race, is the white race.

In the article, written by Giroux, he describes the rise and openness of the white power movement since President Trump was elected. One important note in this article is that of the Charlottesville attack, and the response resident Trump had to the attacks. People explained his reaction as a nod off, and trying to make the attack blow by, and not pay attention to it. The Charlottesville attack was when a car ran into a crowd at a rally event killing one person, and injuring several others. The man who attacked the rally was a known white supremacist, and his motive behind the attacks was because of the rally being a black rights rally. Trump’s reaction to this rally, caused a rise in white supremacist followings, and a rise in the violence that they instill. Since they are a leaderless resistance, the crimes are often wide spread and the do not take credit for all. In symbolic Interactionism, they focus on the single persons view and how that view ties them into society. In this article, the views of president Trump, as shown in his reaction towards the Charlottesville attacks, were more suggestive of everyone being responsible for the attacks, not the man who drove into the crowd. The views of Trump made an impact on the white power movement because they took his words as him agreeing with them.

In the article written by William Liu discusses the relationships between wealth and white supremacy. In his article the main points relate to how upper class white men, use their money to instill their white supremacist views, and develop ways to reach other, and women in all classes. The lower class white men use their networking skills to recruit people into the resistance. The use of this tactic is a good way to represent symbolic interactionism, as they are using their beliefs to recruit individuals into their movement.

The article about the founding fathers of the white power movement and how the rise of white supremacy is restarting is explained in a few ways. The father of the movement believed that the white race is superior and the right race to be. They believed in making the white race pure, subjecting it out of the rest of the country and creating their own, pure, country.

The last research obtained was from a website, talking about how white supremacists disagree with interracial marriage. As Belew mentioned in the video about her book, white supremacists believe in a pure with race, and do not want mixing between the races. They believe mixed race children are impure. In this article, it talks about the Christian white nationalists and how they explain interracial marriage as being unwelcomed. The research in the article proved that the closer identity to the Christian nationalism belief, the lower their comfort with the idea of interracial marriage. This is consistent with how parents raise their children and how the symbolic interactionism of sharing beliefs causes kids to believe in their like ideals.

Conclusion

The white power movement and its organization has a racist and discriminatory intent behind it. The people believe that white is the only race that is correct. Through the use of connections, passive resilience, and teaching as parents, the rise of white nationalism has increased. The labeling theory under the symbolic interactionism paradigm explains how white nationalists show the race of white being superior to all other races, and that everyone in other races are wrong in their beliefs. The thought that white nationalist discriminate against all other races, and encourage occlusion of these races to keep their race, “Pure”, shows the overriding racism throughout the movement.

Works Cited

• “Bringing the War Home.” C, Sept. 2018, https://www.c-span.org/video/?461115-16/bringing-war-home.
• Giroux, Henry A. “White Nationalism, Armed Culture and State Violence in the Age of Donald Trump.” Philosophy & Social Criticism, vol. 43, no. 9, 2017, pp. 887–910., doi:10.1177/0191453717702800.
• Liu, William Ming. “White Male Power and Privilege: The Relationship between White Supremacy and Social Class.” Journal of Counseling Psychology, vol. 64, no. 4, 2017, pp. 349–358., doi:10.1037/cou0000227.
• PERRY, L. PerrySAMUEL L., et al. “Christian Nationalism and White Racial Boundaries: Examining Whites' Opposition to Interracial Marriage.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2015.1015584.
• Roberts, Diane. “The Great-Granddaddy of White Nationalism.” Southern Cultures, The University of North Carolina Press, 18 Sept. 2019, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/733325.
• Simi, Pete, et al. “Parenting as Activism: Identity Alignment and Activist Persistence in the White Power Movement.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 3, 2016, pp. 491–519., doi:10.1111/tsq.12144.