Making Sense of the White Power Movement
Hey, everyone! Mr. Dickson, here. Since we have the awesome resources of the internet here available and I know you are all curious about all kinds of things happening, I’m going to try to take the opportunity at the end of every week to share some resources with you that might help you make sense of things happening around the country. This is not required reading, just me providing you with some resources about a topic to give you a chance to do some further self-educating. Also, when possible I’ll try to give you resources ranging from simple easy to some deeper dives, giving you the chance to go as deep as you want.
Like I said above, this week the topic I’m going to give you resources for is the White Power Movement, and I have some ideas for future weeks but please: USE THE COMMENTS SECTION TO GIVE ME REQUESTS FOR THE THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT. I won’t always know everything, but I can definitely respond to the things you’re curious about and get you more information.
I’m choosing this because that’s obviously something that is big news right now in the aftermath of the attack on our Capitol on January 6th. However, it’s something I’ve been tracking for several years through the work of Dr. Kathleen Belew at the University of Chicago. She is an historian who has focused on uncovering the history of the Modern White Power Movement for people who want to better understand why this movement is plaguing our country. I’m going to provide some resources on some of her work here to let you explore and learn more about where this movement came from, why it’s such a problem, and what to watch out for.
Probably the easiest resource is Dr. Belew’s Twitter feed. You can find her on Twitter, @kathleen_belew or by clicking the link below. She routinely posts threads and sources that help me make sense of the things I’m seeing on TV and reading in the news. She also retweets a lot of people who are doing reliable coverage of this topic (there’s a lot of trash on the internet, finding people you can trust is worthwhile).
http://www.twitter.com/kathleen_belew
YouTube
Dr. Belew made this video entitled “Why This Moment in History is Ripe for Radicalization” which is helpful for understanding why media and watchdog organizations are worried about online radicalization right now. This video’s about 2 minutes long.
If you just search her name on YouTube, there are several videos she’s made or been a part of.
Podcasts
If you’re not on Twitter, she has also been featured on several podcasts that are worth checking out, most recently on the podcast “Democracy in Danger” where she does a good job of retracing the history of far-right militias back to the 1970s, including their connections to military veterans. It’s about 30 minutes long.
And this one was on January 13th covering the impeachment and the attack on the Capitol. It’s 1.5 hours long, but hey, it’s a podcast.
January 2021 Report on the White Power Movement
If you don’t mind reading a bit, here’s a report on White Power’s effect on democracy which Dr. Belew authored and released last week. For any of you who have maybe wondered if White Supremacy is actually a problem, I recommend reading the section of this report entitled, “Sounding the Alarm,” which starts on page four of the report and is only 5 paragraphs long. The full report is extremely informative, though, and it’s only 12 pages. AND it’s Ctrl + F searchable.
Dr. Belew’s Book
If you don’t mind reading a full book, her book Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America covers the history of the modern White Power Movement from its origins with Vietnam veterans near Houston, in Brazoria County and out in Kemah…all the way through to the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. I’ll level with you, it’s a college level text, but she’s pretty engaging for an academic history writer (trust me, some of them can get pretty boring).
I hope this gives you some opportunities for learning more from a brilliant woman and historian who I truly respect. Let me know in the comments on our classroom page in Microsoft Teams if you check any of this out.
— Dickson
