Radicalized on Campus? (Un)Coded Whiteness as Campus Social Movement

Abstract

This paper explores how whiteness is rhetorically employed in the recruitment and organizational strategies of conservative student campus groups. It considers group activity prior to, during, and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle and during the 2020 presidential election cycle. Drawing on both critical whiteness studies and social movements, this study examines how conservative students engage in framing processes designed to convert nonadherents to adherents of a group ideology. It also interrogates how whiteness influences this framing. Through a multi-site case study analysis incorporating observation, interviews, and a critical document analysis of over 100 unique articles and student group artifacts (e.g., flyers, social media posts, student newspaper editorials, etc.), and over 2,000 tweets over two distinct time points, I find that conservative student groups are employing whiteness to recruit new students over shared experiences. Specific effort is focused on "coming out" as conservative, identifying as the more academically and intellectually rigorous side of the campus political debate, and disidentifying with contemporary campus liberalism.

The New Right: Conservative student political repertoires and intragroup conflict

“…Colleges and universities are often conceptualized as "marketplaces of ideas" where ideological diversity is encouraged and developed (Birnbaum, 1987;Thelin, 2011). U.S. campuses are also consistently framed as overtly liberal, liberalizing, dangerous, and marginalizing for students, staff, and faculty who do not fall on the "right"-well, left-side of the political spectrum (Black, 2012;Binder & Wood, 2014;Goldberg, 2009;Gross, 2013). For many college students, political orientation may be a reflexive result of parental and familial influence, partisan media consumption, and homogenous pre-college environments (Binder & Wood, 2014).…”

“…This polarization has been well-documented in research and the press, with conservative talking-heads and conservative faculty members making careers out of criticizing the liberal academy and external organizations cropping up to ensure the continued development and active political engagement of conservative students through active support and an abundance of funding (Black, 2012;Binder & Wood, 2014;Coyle & Robinson, 2005;d'Souza, 1991;Goldberg, 2009Goldberg, , 2010Goldberg, , 2013Horowitz, 2009). Further, this polarization has resulted in a conservative appropriation of liberal talking points around marginalization and a subsequent framing of campus political discourse as between academically and intellectually rigorous conservative students and a liberal majority that leverages its numerical advantage to suppress oppositional discourse and resist intellectual and rhetorical development (Binder & Wood, 2014;Havey, 2020a). As the opposition within a liberal "echo chamber" (Havey, 2020a, p. 19), conservatives argue that the constant and often combative political engagement required of them by the liberal majority on their campuses facilitates intellectual development, argument refinement, and a pursuit of discursive and rhetorical skill not required of liberal students (Black, 2012;Binder & Wood, 2014;Goldberg, 2009;Havey, 2020a;Horowitz, 2009).…”

“…Further, this polarization has resulted in a conservative appropriation of liberal talking points around marginalization and a subsequent framing of campus political discourse as between academically and intellectually rigorous conservative students and a liberal majority that leverages its numerical advantage to suppress oppositional discourse and resist intellectual and rhetorical development (Binder & Wood, 2014;Havey, 2020a). As the opposition within a liberal "echo chamber" (Havey, 2020a, p. 19), conservatives argue that the constant and often combative political engagement required of them by the liberal majority on their campuses facilitates intellectual development, argument refinement, and a pursuit of discursive and rhetorical skill not required of liberal students (Black, 2012;Binder & Wood, 2014;Goldberg, 2009;Havey, 2020a;Horowitz, 2009). Further, Binder and Wood (2014) have identified that institutional characteristics and students' understanding of the institution as a target for political mobilization (Walker et al, 2008) have produced varied political repertoires from provocation to highbrow commentary across campus types.…”

“…From highbrow commentary-like penning a satirical editorial in the campus newspaper of record or an alternative magazine-or more blatant provocation like an affirmative action bake sale (Binder & Wood, 2014), speakers series involving nationally inflammatory personalities, or individual-level heckling, understanding and interrogating the political repertoires students employ is crucial to identifying and problematizing the contours of campus political discourse. This is specifically relevant given the polarized and dichotomous taxonomy of rhetorical engagement presented by both ends of the political spectrum but emphatically pushed by campus conservatives and their supporters off campus, like Tomi Lahren and Ben Shapiro, who label liberal students "snowflakes" and push the idea that "facts don't care about your feelings" (Black, 2012;Binder & Wood, 2014;Coyle & Robinson, 2005;d'Souza, 1991;Goldberg, 2009Goldberg, , 2010Goldberg, , 2013Havey, 2020a;Horowitz, 2009). Further, this is particularly important as campus political polarization persists and becomes increasingly tied to divisive, and at times hateful, national contentious political discourse and identification with the conservative movement becomes more defined by contrast, disgust, and disidentification with liberalism than by clear commitment and investment in a coherent conservative ideology (Havey, 2020a).…”

“…This is specifically relevant given the polarized and dichotomous taxonomy of rhetorical engagement presented by both ends of the political spectrum but emphatically pushed by campus conservatives and their supporters off campus, like Tomi Lahren and Ben Shapiro, who label liberal students "snowflakes" and push the idea that "facts don't care about your feelings" (Black, 2012;Binder & Wood, 2014;Coyle & Robinson, 2005;d'Souza, 1991;Goldberg, 2009Goldberg, , 2010Goldberg, , 2013Havey, 2020a;Horowitz, 2009). Further, this is particularly important as campus political polarization persists and becomes increasingly tied to divisive, and at times hateful, national contentious political discourse and identification with the conservative movement becomes more defined by contrast, disgust, and disidentification with liberalism than by clear commitment and investment in a coherent conservative ideology (Havey, 2020a).…”