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From the Nativist's Point of View: How Ethnography Can Enrich Our Understanding of Political Identity

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 54; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/tsq.12007

1533-8525

Harel Shapira,

Rhetoric and Communication Studies

AbstractBased on my participant observation of the border militia group known as the Minutemen, this article examines what motivates people to participate in social movements. Building on social movements' scholarship, I argue that participation cannot be reduced to the expression of the beliefs which group members hold. However, while previous scholarship has turned toward organizational dynamics and networks to move beyond the ideological foundations of political behavior, I turn to everyday practices. By focusing on practices, ethnography allows us to expand our understanding of movement participation by showing not just the "before" of a movement (understood as a set of ideas or interests people hold) or the "outcomes" of a movement (understood as securing of material interests) but the "during" of a movement. And, as I show through the Minutemen, the "during" of the movement can sometimes be what inspires and sustains participation, and indeed, be the very crux of what the movement is about. ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI am grateful to Sudhir Venkatesh, Shamus Khan, Diane Vaughan, Al Young Jr., and the anonymous reviewers for their comments.NOTESNotes1 Although the group originally started as the "Tombstone Militia" in 2002, it was not until 2005 that it became formalized as the "Minutemen" at which point a massive national mobilization campaign helped bring the large following of volunteers. Although the transition from the more localized Tombstone Militia to the Minutemen, and the dynamics of mobilization that went into it are an important story, this essay focuses on the group after its establishment as the Minutemen.2 The Minutemen have roughly 12,000 card-carrying members, but only about a fourth participate in the patrols. During the monthlong Arizona musters, you will find about 200 mostly elderly white middle-class men, almost all military veterans, moving in and out of the Anvil Ranch. Of 193 male Minutemen for whom I collected such information, 164 (85%) were men. Of those men, 138 (84%) had served in the military in some capacity. While many had been drafted (during the Vietnam War), a significant number volunteered for service, some in the Korean War, but others during more recent conflicts, such as the first Gulf War. Of these people with a military background, 105 (76%) served beyond their required tour of duty, and 82 (59%) went on to have military careers or work in the military-industrial complex (including police officers, private investigators, parole officers, weapons and ammunition salespeople, and private security). Of the roughly 400 volunteers I met on the border, almost all were white; I met two African Americans, and six who identified as Latino Americans. Women represented about 15% of the volunteers.3 I have thought very hard about what term to use to describe the persons referred to in contemporary American discourse in a spectrum between "illegal aliens" and "undocumented migrants." My hope in using the term "illegal" immigrant is that it does not subscribe to the politics of either "side." Although problematic, illegal immigrant is a term that neither "side" adopts because it lacks the political designation their preferred term, "illegal alien" or "undocumented migrant," does. I am convinced that most of the people I write about will consider my usage of "illegal immigrant" unsatisfactory, and that gives me comfort in the choice.4 Although my primary research site was southern Arizona, I traveled to various locations across the United States where organizational meetings and protests took place. Beyond this, I also spent time with a handful of volunteers at their homes away from the border in order to get a sense of their lives back home. Overall, I participated in six separate monthlong "musters," in which Minutemen volunteers gather biannually to patrol the border, attended four other "weekend" patrols not organized as part of these monthly musters. In total, I spent over 300 hours on actual patrol with group members. Beyond participation in patrols, I slept in the campgrounds which served as operational headquarters and followed the daily routines of members. I had conversations both within the confines of the campground as well as in more casual settings such as nearby restaurants, going for walks, and taking drives in the desert. When not conducting fieldwork, I often communicated with members via telephone and e-mail.5 See, for example, Mike Davis, "Vigilante Man," Mother Jones, May 6, 2006.6 To protect confidentiality, I use pseudonyms to identify all the people unless they are public figures. Furthermore, specific biographical details that might reveal identity, but which are not consequential to the larger account, have been altered in a way that maintains their general character as best as possible.7 For a portrayal of the Minutemen as "patriots" by conservative media, see, for example, Joseph Farah, "Minutemen Are Heroes," WorldNetDaily, April 8, 2005.8 What limited scholarship on the Minutemen currently exists tends to reproduce the simplicity of the media and public accounts consider, for example, the two books that have given extensive focus to the Minutemen, CitationArmando Navarro's (2009) The Immigration Crisis: Nativism, Armed Vigilantism, and the Rise of a Countervailing Movement, and CitationRoxanne Doty's (2009) The Law into Their Own Hands: Immigration and the Politics of Exceptionalism. Both authors use the category of "right-wing" to define the Minutemen, and position them as part of an "anti-immigrant movement" which, as Doty puts it, is rooted in a set of "attitudes" or "sentiments" which include "racism" and "white supremacy." "Ideologically," writes Navarro, the Minutemen "were nativistic, racist, and xenophobic, especially towards Mexicanos. They adhered to a White nationalism that was permeated by a WASP ethos. … They were driven by a hatred of undocumented immigrants, especially Mexicanos. … Their xenophobic perceptions and attitudes were based on their assertion that 'brown people' were egregiously changing the ethnic and cultural makeup of the U.S." (p. 194).9 An influential example of this approach is given by CitationDoug McAdam (1990) in his work on civil rights activists. Focusing on student activists involved in the "Freedom Summer" campaign of 1964, McAdam shows that attitudinal differences did not significantly differentiate those students who traveled to Mississippi from those who did not. But while attitudinal differences were not great, there was a significant difference in terms of organizational connections and social networks between those who did and did not participate: students who were well integrated into political organizations and who had strong social ties to other student volunteers were more like to participate, regardless of attitudes.10 However, the New Social Movements scholars have provided either a vague notion of what identity is, or, fallen back into the older mode of focusing on beliefs. CitationMario Diani (1992), for example, says that, "Only those actors, sharing the same beliefs and sense of belongingness, can be considered to be part of a social movement" (p. 9).11 It is worth noting that Roger did not end up taking Tom to the hospital the next day. In large part, this was because of Tom's insistence that he could "tough it out," and serves as another example of how these men sought to define themselves as "masculine."