>Doug, based on my observations of someone I know, I am afraid it is mostly
>the "shock value." The guy in question if full of resentment for the
>alleged rejection of his "intellectual talents" by the academic
>establishment - he dropped out of a grad school and ostensibly became a
>truck driver. His use of Nazi symbolism serves him two goals:...
I doubt there is a distinction between this kind of anti-elitist enjoyment and racism. it allows the racist to be believe there is a conspiracy of sorts to deprive him of something (identity, nationthingy, potency, etc), and conspiracies are certainly not compelling unless they are conspiracies of those presumably with more power than he. this is why anti-semitism must have its jewish bankers; nationalist racism must have its merc-driving refugees; anti-black racism must have its 'aboriginal industry' - the powerful who have deprived him of something, intangible enough to warrant being called his Thing. I'm assuming this guy also makes claims about how hard he works whilst others get an easy ride 'just for being black'? it's all about a fantasy of deprivation, a powerful one, because it's sufficiently hinged onto reality by the fact that we are expected to work our guts out, compete viciously against each other, confront each other in competitions for shrinking welfare expenditures, employment, etc.
in order for racism to put down roots as a popular politics, it must carry this kind of populist enjoyment. which is exactly the reason why reaching for censorship does not work - castration anxieties don't get challenged by threatening castration. what might work is if we took seriously the force of racist enjoyment, and the role of the law in establishing (rather than negating) transgression. what might also work is if the left stopped acting as a would-be bunch of technocrats and law-makers, and more like anti-racist prepared to take it seriously enough to drop the formulaic responses which have never worked. maybe it's also time we regarded racism as that which both threatens us all and which we are all eminently capable of.
Angela --- rcollins at netlink.com.au