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The Case for Redneck Revolt by Teal Rothschild Roger Williams University DOCS@RWU Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications Arts and Sciences 2019 Multiplicity in Movements: The aC se for Redneck Revolt Teal Ruthschild Roger Williams University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/fcas_fp Part of the Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons Recommended Citation Rothschild, T. (2019). Multiplicity in Movements: The asC e for Redneck Revolt. Contexts, 18(3), 57–59. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts and Sciences at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. blocked their alumni from conducting broad-based support and sustained participation using approaches that can voter outreach on campus. In response, power among young voters over one be adopted in a range of settings. Given students in Delano and Stockton, with summer or election cycle. As the lead- that young people who become politi- support from school board member allies, ers of both the 1964 Freedom Summer cized at a young age develop a lifelong successfully advocated for school board project and the 2018 Central Valley Free- interest in civic affairs, investing in the resolutions that encouraged non-partisan dom Summer understood, ongoing voter civics education of youth in the poorest voter registration and pre-registration on registration and grassroots organizing communities will help ensure that the high school campuses. Participant obser- can help ensure that elected officials and voices of the most vulnerable are heard vation data and related documentation government institutions remain account- as we decide our nation’s future. (including the texts of local resolutions) able to their constituencies. Additionally, are being incorporated into publications high schools, community colleges, and Veronica Terriquez, Randy Villegas, and Roxanna that can guide civics education initiatives other local institutions can play a more Villalobos are all at the University of California-Santa in similar contexts. deliberate role in providing young people Cruz. Terriquez, a sociology professor, studies civic with the civic knowledge and skills to engagement, inequality, immigration, and youth transi- building youth voice and take action in ways that advance their tions to adulthood. Villegas, a politics graduate student, studies political engagement and voting behavior, power communities’ needs. The CVFS partici- particularly among Latinx constituencies. Villalobos, a While their participation makes patory action research project evidences sociology graduate student, studies gender and racial a difference in the short term, young possibilities for promoting low-income formations in the rural United States. and passionate volunteers cannot build youths’ civic engagement and electoral multiplicity in movements: the case for redneck revolt by teal rothschild “They Hate Racists. They Love Assault Rifles. Meet Redneck Revolt.” It may be hard to imagine a coordinated, American social movement whose platform centers on hot-button issues from the left and redneckrevolt.org the right. However, as this Indy Week The website banner for redneckrevolt.org. headline indicates, Redneck Revolt is here to prove it’s possible. Their activist work To understand how and why seem- Revolt brings venerable activist traditions centers on dismantling racism toward ingly contradictory elements combine to bear on very contemporary issues, people of color and bias toward trans- in movements, we have to attend to including 21st century identity politics. gender and gender non-conforming indi- the ways the medium of cultural prolif- Despite areas of consonance, their aim— viduals, all while pursuing a neo-Marxist eration is as important as the particular “Putting the Red Back in Redneck”— ideology. Why does Redneck Revolt cause. The hashtag #MeToo illustrates means something very different from adopt the “redneck” presentation with the medium of the internet, whereas the espousing traditional Marxist views. their mission to fight racism and injustice red bandanas worn by Redneck Revolt to the marginalized? How do they work activists point to an older history of labor guns n’ labor to accomplish their goals? What can this strikes in the late 19th and early 20th Founded in 2009 and rebranded in tell us about social identity movements centuries. Just as the work of #MeToo 2016, Redneck Revolt describes itself as in the modern era? extends far beyond the internet, Redneck “an anti-racist, anti-fascist community Contexts, Vol. 18, Issue 3, pp. 57-59 ISSN 1536-5042. © American Sociological Association. SUMMER 2019 57 http://contexts.sagepub.com. DOI 10.1177/1536504219864964. contexts culture defense formation.” In states where local communities and take up their place various local chapters of Redneck Revolt armed community defense is legal, in history of struggle experienced by all were declined, I turned instead to depic- branches may become John Brown Gun working-class Americans and immigrants, tions of this group in national media. What Clubs. This is characterized in their lit- people of color, and LGBTQ communities. I found showed the difficulty organiza- erature as training themselves and their These activists also propose a dif- tions face in crafting new social movement communities in “defense and mutual ferent approach to the concept of gun frames. In the movements I’ve examined, aid.” The group owns their “redneck” ownership and use. For Redneck Revolt, from militias to immigrant rights groups, identity, intentionally referencing the the right to bear arms is entwined with a I have seen that identity plays a dual role workers who engaged in labor disputes duty to overthrow the state, if necessary. in how the activists engage their cause around the turn of the 20th century. Yet, Sometimes the left-leaning allies of Red- and each other, but equally how the press they challenge the popular representa- neck Revolt are not comfortable with the and/or the opposition frame the activists’ tions of that term, particularly its associa- use and presence of firearms, and other identity. Redneck Revolt finds itself in these tion with racism. members work at gaining their trust. In crosshairs: they see their vision as clearly Redneck Revolt’s self-stated ideology the states where it is legal to own, carry, stemming from the position of “protest is straight-forward: both poor White peo- and operate firearms, Redneck Revolt from below” to help the marginalized, ple and poor people of color should be members organize protests and actions while the press is presently framing them fighting, together, against their common in which their exercise their right to carry as an oxymoron—as if gun carrying and enemy—the wealthy. They frame their and provide their own event security. anti-racism are not two positions, but two work as attacking the White supremacy The group’s combination of attention opposing poles. that they understand as embedded in to historical protest ideology and more capitalism. They also support gun rights. recent activism for marginalized groups accomplishing movement Members are predominantly White sets them apart from other national(ist) goals working-class people challenging oth- and masculine-dominant groups. Because Redneck Revolt’s self-stated defi- ers in their position to connect to their my efforts to engage interviews by the ance of a right-wing versus left-wing Daniel Oberhaus, Flickr CC Members of Redneck Revolt protest outside a 2016 rally for then-candidate Donald Trump. 58 contexts.org categorization as well as traditional working on developing and sustain- Contemporary social movement studies and even contemporary social change ing alliances with several “left-leaning” have begun to center groups that span ideology can be seen in where they do groups, while also continuing to engage multiple identities and causes, and move- their work and what that work entails. in dialogues with White supremacists, for ments like Redneck Revolt suggest exactly Redneck Revolt occupies spaces that are the aim of educating them about their why that matters. often associated with the White work- shared history with people of color. Their During a time of seemingly rigid ing class: country music concerts, flea idea is to build a more vibrant network of boundaries surrounding activism and markets, gun shows, NASCAR events, activists. Community survival projects and identity, Redneck Revolt is seemingly full and rodeos. In these spaces, they stand multiple responses to White nationalist of contradictions that challenge binary against White supremacy as an above- ground militant formation that is anti- capitalist, anti-racist, and anti-fascist. Redneck Revolt members are predominantly They advocate direct action to protect the marginalized and argue for the necessity White working-class people challenging others of a revolution, while drawing attention in their position to take up their place in history to the limits of liberalism. Their combina- tion of ideology and practices illustrates of struggle experienced by all working-class the complexity of this movement in a time in which the political culture has Americans and immigrants, people of color, and been framed in essentialist notions of the LGBTQ communities. extreme left and extreme right. Looking at the literature and descriptions their
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