From jokes to violence: The evolution of white supremacy within American society

Abstract

This review critically examines three academic texts addressing the phenomenon of white supremacy in the United States: The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy, Being-in-America: White Supremacy and the American Self, and Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can Be Stopped. Each work approaches white supremacy from a distinct analytical vantage point. Pérez’s study investigates the role of racist humor in sustaining racial inequalities, Richardson introduces the notion of a “white supremacist collective unconscious” to analyze the influence of white supremacy on individual identity formation, and Blee and colleagues explore the processes of radicalization within extremist white supremacist social movements. Collectively, these texts elucidate the enduring presence and multifaceted expressions of white supremacy in American society, encompassing its cultural, psychological, and political dimensions.

Keywords

white supremacy racist humor self-identity extremism social movements

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References

Blee

Futrell

Simi

(2024) Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can Be Stopped. Abingdon: Routledge.

Pérez

(2022) The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Richardson

(2024) Being-in-America: White Supremacy and the American Self. New York: Pefter Lang.