Abstract
This article analyzes the use of anti-immigration rhetoric and organizing efforts by extreme rightwing racist groups to present themselves as political actors. The authors analyze this process through a case study of the Keystone State Skinheads/Keystone United, a Pennsylvania-based hate group. The authors identify the manner in which this countercultural group uses anti-immigrant rhetoric to frame itself as a political organization. White racist organizations utilize issues such as the opposition to immigration to minimize stigma associated with their beliefs. This strategy has allowed them to participate at the forefront of anti-immigration organizing over the course of the last decade. By engaging in such organizing activity, extreme groups often present themselves to a more mainstream audience as nonviolent organizations working merely to uphold immigration law. Additionally, the participation of white supremacists in the immigration debate shifts rhetoric further to the right and legitimizes expressions of racist senti- ment by mainstream political actors.
Highlights
Recent political activity and discourse that opposes immigrant rights and immigration reform in the United States has frequently faced accusations of racism and xenophobia, with regard to discussions around immigration from Mexico
Using a case study of a Pennsylvania-based white supremacist organization known as the Keystone State Skinheads (KSS), this article outlines the key strategies and actions employed by white supremacist groups in order to legitimize their ideology in public discourse
In the case study to follow, we address the manner in which the KSS use many of the aforementioned stigma management strategies in their attempt to gain legitimacy through the strategic adoption of anti-immigration political discourses and activities
Summary
Recent political activity and discourse that opposes immigrant rights and immigration reform in the United States has frequently faced accusations of racism and xenophobia, with regard to discussions around immigration from Mexico. Unlike political or religious groups, which often seek to build a mass movement and gain widespread support through various “legitimation techniques” (Sykes & Matza, 1957) that rationalize violence or other deviant actions as what is best for the nation or as the will of God, racist skinheads seek status within the subculture or local scene They are, largely unconcerned with the opinions of the public in general and relish a stigmatized identity (Berlet & Vysotsky, 2006; Blazak, 2001; Hamm, 1993; Simi, Smith, & Reeser, 2008). There is a belief that minority groups who exhibit pride in their ethnicity are likely to be as bigoted as members of their own organizations (Berbrier, 1998b)
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