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Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement
Following up her highly praised study of the women in the 1920s Ku Klux Klan, Blee discovers that many of today's racist women combine dangerous racist and anti-Semitic agendas with otherwise mainstream lives. The only national sample of a broad spectrum of racist activists and the only major work on women racists, this important book also sheds light on how gender relationships shape participation in the movement as a whole.
292 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2002
17 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen M. Blee
13 books15 followersKathleen M. Blee is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 9, 2016
Started reading this out of curiosity, then finished it at what seems like an oddly appropriate time. An interesting ethnography of women in the hate movement with a compelling conclusion -- that many women who enter hate groups do so as a result of chance encounters rather than seeking out hatred. One of the most fascinating things I discovered in this book is that racist activists, particularly those who have been in a hate group for a long time, discourage outward symbols of racism in daily life because looking "ordinary" opens more opportunities for conversation and connection that they can then use to recruit other women into their organizations. Seems obvious now, but wouldn't have occurred to me before reading this book.
It's chilling that so many people are recruited into hate movements simply by proximity or the need to belong to a group, but it also suggests that many of the women who become racist activists could just as easily be swayed from the group by more open, inclusive options. I can only hope.
It's chilling that so many people are recruited into hate movements simply by proximity or the need to belong to a group, but it also suggests that many of the women who become racist activists could just as easily be swayed from the group by more open, inclusive options. I can only hope.
December 4, 2021
Even women can be racists, who knew? Brilliant book on the evil, contradictions and conflicts waged and faced by women in hate movements
September 19, 2017
Based on interviews in the 90s with women involved in white supremacist organizations. She finds that they function much as other activist groups combining socialization and cultural identity along with political action. Women are drawn into them often through casual social interaction rather than pre-existing belief and adopt/retrofit their views and biographies to match the extremist views over time. Spends a lot of time on the contradictions and complications of the women's personal actions (in terms of racist belief and commitment to principles or violence) compared to the group's external messaging and appearance. Mostly pre-internet, though she touches on ways the Web was already starting to provide a more accessible and diffuse venue for information and coordination in these groups.
May 3, 2022
The follow-up to Kathleen Blee's "Women of the Klan", "Inside Organized Racism" branches out to look at organized racism in a much broader way. I personally preferred the style of writing more in this book, and I thought that her first-hand accounts and interviews with the different women were incredibly poignant, and relates well to the concept discussed in the first book, that women in hate movements are just as motivated as men. The difference mainly is that gendered socialization impacts how women act inside of hate movements (typically) inside of patriarchal structured, largely somewhat misogynistic organizations - which impacts how they perform duties inside of the group. Looking at women's participation in hate movements through a gendered lens is integral for anti-terrorism and anti-hate strategies. I think that this book does a good job not infantilizing the women inside of hate movements, which many other authors on this subject have done. Blee is really a pioneer when dealing with women's extremism, and this is a fantastic read.
April 9, 2008
Riveting subject matter, but I wasn't thrilled with the way it was presented.
Some of the problems may not be Blee's fault: the book draws on a few dozen interviews, conducted over the course of several years, with women involved in the contemporary hate movement. Many groups are represented, but the interview subjects had to be female, had to be somewhat active in a racist group, and they had to be willing to speak to her in safe settings under safe circumstances. (That said, Blee faced violent threats -- both direct and indirect -- through the course of her research, and narrowly escaped a few violent episodes.)
The sample of women interviewed is -- understandably -- so skewed and limited that it would be difficult, in my opinion, to draw meaningful generalizations from it. Yet that is precisely what this book aims to do. For instance, in an early chapter, Blee provides a demographic breakdown of the women interviewed and states that popular assumptions about people in the hate movement are absolutely untrue. Possible, but I can't draw the same conclusions her data led her to. She introduces a paragraph about racist women's educational levels with the statement, "Most were educated." Reading further, however, she states that one-third of her interview subjects were high school dropouts. It is interesting to note that the other two-thirds had at least graduated high school, and a notable number of those had attended or graduated from college. But the number of dropouts in the general population is far lower than it is in this sample size -- and the sample size is, as I said, necessarily flawed. I'm not sure what, if anything, it means that a slender majority of the small number of racist women willing to be interviewed had a high school education.
Blee tries again and again to deduce the big picture based on the narratives that were presented her -- but I wanted her to get out of the way and let the interview subjects and narratives speak for themselves. Also, very little context is provided for the reader. Instead, a general familiarity with the history of the hate movement and its contemporary players and problems is just assumed. I get that Blee is a sociology professor and this work may be intended as a text, but given that the subject is of likely interest to a general audience -- and the general audience may not have done additional reading about the far right -- I think the book is unfortunately limited.
The book suffers from problematic writing. Several points are repeated more than once, for reasons I couldn't discern. Also, Blee's use of language is sometimes maddeningly imprecise. An example of both: At several points she mentions that, while her subjects addressed their opinions of African-Americans and Latinos by relating unpleasant (if often banal) anecdotes, they spoke of Jews with abstract, conspiratorial vitriol.
However -- again, this comes up at least twice, maybe three times during the course of the book -- when pressed, Blee writes, not one of her subjects "could name a single Jewish person." Two or three offered a mangled version Alan Greenspan's name, or simply issued the name "Rothschild" with no first names attached -- and these women did not seem to know much if anything about the history of the Rothschild family. Because she contrasts this lack of knowledge with the anecdotal vitriol reserved for other ethnic groups, I interpreted that Blee pressed for the name of ANY Jewish person, living or dead, famous or personally acquainted by the interview subject -- and that "Alan Greenberg" was the best any could do. Given that these women came from all over the country and all socioeconomic backgrounds, I found it fascinating (and implausible) that not one had encountered, in their lives, a person she knew to be Jewish.
I was right: later, Blee states that some of the women acknowledged they maintained ties to Jewish friends (unbeknownst, of course, to their partners or racist friends). Likely, then, that in the conversations referenced earlier, Blee had been pressing for specifics about the interview subjects' espoused notion that Jews control history or banking, not about whether they had any personal experience with Jewish people. But that should have been clarified.
Still, Blee offers some interesting data and conclusions. I found it noteworthy that while some of the women interviewed were raised in the hate movement, many were not -- nor were they brought into the hate movement by racist boyfriends or husbands -- and very few went out looking for a hate group to join in order to validate and act on previously-held racist ideas. Instead, most encountered hate groups through some other social tie (having a friend in the group, or attending a skinhead-heavy party) and gradually became more enamored of racist ideas. Also, while men in the hate movement speak of feeling "empowered" by their involvement in it, most of the women Blee spoke to felt burdened by their knowledge of "how things really work" and would not recommend that their children become involved in racist activism. I maintain that these generalizations may be dangerous to make, but the observations provide some insight into how hate-group recruiting really works, and how it may be possible to get women out of them.
Some of the problems may not be Blee's fault: the book draws on a few dozen interviews, conducted over the course of several years, with women involved in the contemporary hate movement. Many groups are represented, but the interview subjects had to be female, had to be somewhat active in a racist group, and they had to be willing to speak to her in safe settings under safe circumstances. (That said, Blee faced violent threats -- both direct and indirect -- through the course of her research, and narrowly escaped a few violent episodes.)
The sample of women interviewed is -- understandably -- so skewed and limited that it would be difficult, in my opinion, to draw meaningful generalizations from it. Yet that is precisely what this book aims to do. For instance, in an early chapter, Blee provides a demographic breakdown of the women interviewed and states that popular assumptions about people in the hate movement are absolutely untrue. Possible, but I can't draw the same conclusions her data led her to. She introduces a paragraph about racist women's educational levels with the statement, "Most were educated." Reading further, however, she states that one-third of her interview subjects were high school dropouts. It is interesting to note that the other two-thirds had at least graduated high school, and a notable number of those had attended or graduated from college. But the number of dropouts in the general population is far lower than it is in this sample size -- and the sample size is, as I said, necessarily flawed. I'm not sure what, if anything, it means that a slender majority of the small number of racist women willing to be interviewed had a high school education.
Blee tries again and again to deduce the big picture based on the narratives that were presented her -- but I wanted her to get out of the way and let the interview subjects and narratives speak for themselves. Also, very little context is provided for the reader. Instead, a general familiarity with the history of the hate movement and its contemporary players and problems is just assumed. I get that Blee is a sociology professor and this work may be intended as a text, but given that the subject is of likely interest to a general audience -- and the general audience may not have done additional reading about the far right -- I think the book is unfortunately limited.
The book suffers from problematic writing. Several points are repeated more than once, for reasons I couldn't discern. Also, Blee's use of language is sometimes maddeningly imprecise. An example of both: At several points she mentions that, while her subjects addressed their opinions of African-Americans and Latinos by relating unpleasant (if often banal) anecdotes, they spoke of Jews with abstract, conspiratorial vitriol.
However -- again, this comes up at least twice, maybe three times during the course of the book -- when pressed, Blee writes, not one of her subjects "could name a single Jewish person." Two or three offered a mangled version Alan Greenspan's name, or simply issued the name "Rothschild" with no first names attached -- and these women did not seem to know much if anything about the history of the Rothschild family. Because she contrasts this lack of knowledge with the anecdotal vitriol reserved for other ethnic groups, I interpreted that Blee pressed for the name of ANY Jewish person, living or dead, famous or personally acquainted by the interview subject -- and that "Alan Greenberg" was the best any could do. Given that these women came from all over the country and all socioeconomic backgrounds, I found it fascinating (and implausible) that not one had encountered, in their lives, a person she knew to be Jewish.
I was right: later, Blee states that some of the women acknowledged they maintained ties to Jewish friends (unbeknownst, of course, to their partners or racist friends). Likely, then, that in the conversations referenced earlier, Blee had been pressing for specifics about the interview subjects' espoused notion that Jews control history or banking, not about whether they had any personal experience with Jewish people. But that should have been clarified.
Still, Blee offers some interesting data and conclusions. I found it noteworthy that while some of the women interviewed were raised in the hate movement, many were not -- nor were they brought into the hate movement by racist boyfriends or husbands -- and very few went out looking for a hate group to join in order to validate and act on previously-held racist ideas. Instead, most encountered hate groups through some other social tie (having a friend in the group, or attending a skinhead-heavy party) and gradually became more enamored of racist ideas. Also, while men in the hate movement speak of feeling "empowered" by their involvement in it, most of the women Blee spoke to felt burdened by their knowledge of "how things really work" and would not recommend that their children become involved in racist activism. I maintain that these generalizations may be dangerous to make, but the observations provide some insight into how hate-group recruiting really works, and how it may be possible to get women out of them.
June 20, 2024
This was such an enriching book about how racism is made. Men and women, poor and rich, sexism within the movement, how women create its social life. How dangerous and brute they are. There different definition of ennemi. (White and black)
February 2, 2024
I used to post heavily on 4chan and incel forums before I transitioned male to female.
Oddly relatable.
Good but I remember feeling frustrated and thinking Kathleen M. Blee didn't really understand shame and violence at a deep level.
Oddly relatable.
Good but I remember feeling frustrated and thinking Kathleen M. Blee didn't really understand shame and violence at a deep level.
January 6, 2011
I actually read this as an e-book, but goodreads doesn't seem to have an option for an electronic edition of this book. Reading a scholarly book on a computer presents certain difficulties, such as the fact that I couldn't easily flip between the references and the narrative as I read, so I had to look at the notes and bibliography after I was done, rather than as I proceeded which is my usual approach. Nevertheless, I found the book interesting and valuable, and I was able to confirm (at the end, at least) that it was based on solid use of both primary and secondary sources. Since most of the important findings are based on interviews conducted by the author, and since she identifies these in-text as she goes, it really wasn't too much of a problem.
Blee's study of the life-history of female activists in racist organizations gives us a unique perspective on a world that is shrouded in mystery, propaganda and media distortions. As she points out, it is likely that it will remain relatively unique because male activists are less responsive to sociological research, even when approached by white male researchers. Blee sets herself apart from much other work done in this area also by taking her subjects at their word and not imposing assumptions about their sanity, intelligence, or class backgrounds upon them prior to conducting the interviews. Wisely, she avoids probing their ideological commitments and encourages them to talk primarily about their lives, allowing them to construct the narratives of how and why they are racists on their own terms. She manages to present the material honestly without simply becoming a medium for them to spout slogans to a new audience by critically assessing the themes and tropes of their narratives, while never losing sight of the distance between her own views of the world and those of her subjects. In the process, she provides insight into women's position in the racist subculture, the process of becoming racist, differences between mainstream and extremist racism, racist violence and strategies for overcoming it, and the distance between racist propaganda and practice.
The discussion of violence and the central role it played in the lives of many racist activists was especially interesting to me. It appeared that this was the distinguishing characteristic between this subculture and the many that I have participated in or studied over time (many of which also embrace "extreme" or unusual perspectives on the social order). Violence among and between racist organizations appears to be as accepted as violence against minorities or "race-traitors" (whites who disagree with racist ideas), and the women live in fear of reprisal from mainstream authorities and from others in the racist movement simultaneously. It has always interested me that what was once an entirely mainstream idea (nonwhites are inferior) which still permeates American culture on an unspoken level has become the provenance of "outsiders" to the social mainstream, and even has become unacceptable to express in polite society. Its linkage to violence and insecurity may be a clue to that shift, and similar insights may be gleaned from Blee's work as well, such as the interesting fluidity with which young skinhead activists once passed between the racist and anti-racist activist milieux - the "antifa" or anti-fascist movement retains much of the same ethic of violence and retribution today. This book is a valuable contribution to the study of postwar fascism and makes far more sensible suggestions for combating it than most others of its kind.
Blee's study of the life-history of female activists in racist organizations gives us a unique perspective on a world that is shrouded in mystery, propaganda and media distortions. As she points out, it is likely that it will remain relatively unique because male activists are less responsive to sociological research, even when approached by white male researchers. Blee sets herself apart from much other work done in this area also by taking her subjects at their word and not imposing assumptions about their sanity, intelligence, or class backgrounds upon them prior to conducting the interviews. Wisely, she avoids probing their ideological commitments and encourages them to talk primarily about their lives, allowing them to construct the narratives of how and why they are racists on their own terms. She manages to present the material honestly without simply becoming a medium for them to spout slogans to a new audience by critically assessing the themes and tropes of their narratives, while never losing sight of the distance between her own views of the world and those of her subjects. In the process, she provides insight into women's position in the racist subculture, the process of becoming racist, differences between mainstream and extremist racism, racist violence and strategies for overcoming it, and the distance between racist propaganda and practice.
The discussion of violence and the central role it played in the lives of many racist activists was especially interesting to me. It appeared that this was the distinguishing characteristic between this subculture and the many that I have participated in or studied over time (many of which also embrace "extreme" or unusual perspectives on the social order). Violence among and between racist organizations appears to be as accepted as violence against minorities or "race-traitors" (whites who disagree with racist ideas), and the women live in fear of reprisal from mainstream authorities and from others in the racist movement simultaneously. It has always interested me that what was once an entirely mainstream idea (nonwhites are inferior) which still permeates American culture on an unspoken level has become the provenance of "outsiders" to the social mainstream, and even has become unacceptable to express in polite society. Its linkage to violence and insecurity may be a clue to that shift, and similar insights may be gleaned from Blee's work as well, such as the interesting fluidity with which young skinhead activists once passed between the racist and anti-racist activist milieux - the "antifa" or anti-fascist movement retains much of the same ethic of violence and retribution today. This book is a valuable contribution to the study of postwar fascism and makes far more sensible suggestions for combating it than most others of its kind.
Read
July 29, 2011Blee's look at women within racist groups is rather unusual. It is hard to imagine that people think this way yet it seems so normal for these women. The themes of family echoed by so many are especially disturbing in this thought provoking work.
Read
April 8, 2008this book is great i recommend this to everyone
Want to read
May 17, 2010I've read this but it was very rushed and it's been so long that I should probably go over it again.
June 13, 2011
More of a collection of bits than a coherent narrative. Very useful information, hard-won at that, but just not in quite as useful a format.
January 10, 2022
Great Book. A very insightful social research presented in an engaging and simple way that I think may appeal to non-sociologists as well.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews