Bottom-Up Violence Work

Abstract

This chapter makes sense of armed counter-protest by viewing it as a form of bottom-up, white supremacist “violence work.” Because many of these counter-protestors arm themselves and/or belong to private militias, this movement encroaches on the liberal state's allocation of “violence work”—a form of labor characterized by its ability to forcefully or violently “maintain order”—to a specialized force of government agents (e.g., police and military). This “on the ground” activity is spurred by an interpretation of the historic function of the state, makes a demand that the state continue to serve that function, and works outside the supposed boundaries set by the state to ensure the function is met. By arming themselves, training in techniques that closely resemble those employed by state violence workers, and making themselves especially visible during times of racial justice protest, these groups work to maintain American systems of white supremacy.

Teaching Racial Reckoning: The CRT Panic as a Challenge and an Answer

“…Although this reckoning has been long in the making (Belew, 2021;Belew & Gutierrez, 2021), recent successes of a violent and increasingly mainstream political movement have created new challenges for instructors teaching about racism. Since 2020, we have seen peaceful racial justice protesters frequently met by armed counter-protestors "protecting private property" (Jalal & Schneider, 2022). A theory of a "great white replacement" promoted online by prominent media personalities and by conservative politicians has fueled white anxieties and has been connected to mass shootings in places like Buffalo, New York and Christchurch, New Zealand (Noack, 2019).…”