Community meets to demystify hate groups
Published March 14, 2007
Geography professor Larry Brown used to be a member of the clergy in North Central Indiana. But after meeting two men named Les and Buzz, his career path changed drastically.
The two men, whom Brown met at a church he was a pastor at in Indiana, asked Brown not to speak about race or alcohol. Brown said he then asked them if they had had any race problems lately.
"Buzz and Les then filled me in on the history of how they and their fathers before them had kept their town white through fear, intimidation and violence," Brown said.
This conversation sparked Brown's later work on white nationalist groups across the United States.
Brown spoke to a group of more than 100 individuals on March 9 about his research of white nationalism, as well as other active groups' work. Brown's speech was part of the Sociology Colloquium Series. The series began this semester and allows various professors to give voluntary lectures about topics that are of interest to the public. Brown was the first non-sociology professor to speak as a part of the colloquium.
But Brown said his field of study and sociology are closely related. He said studying geography provides the additional element of place to the study of white nationalist groups and white supremacist groups.
"Place means honored, sacred spaces," Brown said. "They are infused with meaning and power."
Brown connected the idea of physical place and spaces made for white people to a formula he created while studying these groups. The four components included race, history, place and power.
Brown also listed common characteristics of white nationalist groups derived from his research and participant observation. Participant observation is a sociological method of research that allows an individual to learn about a community or way of life by immersing himself or herself into it and actively becoming part of that community.
Brown said participant observation allowed him to match up the public identity of a group with the beliefs members espoused in private meetings.
From Brown's experience, this could either be rewarding with regard to his research, or it could be terrifying.
One experience with the latter encouraged him to stay away from more violent groups.
"I did not go into the more hardcore, violent things," Brown said. "I made that mistake once. About halfway through the meeting, I realized I was one of two guys taking notes."
Brown said he had parked his vehicle far away from the building where the meeting was held. When he began walking to his car, he looked around him and saw the other man who had been taking notes was running to his car.
The characteristics Brown identified included whiteness versus non-whiteness, individuals of Jewish decent as the enemy, the necessity of whites to get the word out to other white people and the notion that we are living in violent, if not apocalyptic, times.
Although Brown's subject matter appeared timely, the topic had been decided long before the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization, chose to march on the streets of Columbia.
"It was kind of serendipitous or ironic that Friday's speech turned out to be on white nationalism," sociology professor Wayne Brekhus said.
Brekhus attended Brown's lecture and also took part in alternative programming during the NSM march and attended the march itself.
"I sent some e-mails out encouraging people to go," Brekhus said. "But I didn't really have a part in the planning."
In light of current events, Brown's speech constantly changed until its delivery on Friday. The speech was geared more toward the NSM instead of the originally broad topic of white nationalist groups.
He included some information specific to the NSM and other similar groups.
"The National Socialist Movement has had a series of three leaders," Brown said.
He later specified that the organization has shown a great deal of youth empowerment, as NSM Leader Jeff Schoep was born in 1973.
"He most likely hasn't had any experience with Nazis," Brown said.
Current NSM members suggest that they are pan-American Nazis and use the same language and wear the same uniforms as the German Nazis did.
Brown also spoke about a "more palatable" brand of white nationalism, which appeals more to the public eye.
"They are far more willing now to enter mainstream politics," Brown said. "They can package their agenda to appear as Christian family values. What's new is the packaging, but what's old is the race, place, history and power."