While virtual communities like Stormfront.org or enationalist.net allow for a very real connection among individuals or groups dedicated to promoting racist ideologies, their construction allows anonymity — which (by the very nature of an informal, hidden connection to the group) can serve to the disadvantage to any sustained political actions the real-life members may happen to promote on these websites. On the other hand, in Second Life an individual whose avatar gains affiliation with a hate group could learn in myriad ways a more “fixed identity” with a specific, virtual ethnicity. In her article, “The Internet Rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan: A Case Study in Website Community Building Run Amok,” Denise Bostdorff describes efforts of hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan to promote nostalgia for an imagined past, i.e., aiming for ”the creation of a virtual tribal identity of white masculinity (Communication Studies, 55 no. 2 (Summer 2004), p. 352).”
In Second Life, the very real relationships that are formed during virtual role-play, e.g., Civil War social and military reenactments, create a type of social pressure that both bonds rightwing activists with new recruits and at the same time constrains their behaviors. In a video of Daniel (Linden) Huebner’s discussion as part of the Stanford Humanities Lab, he describes the Linden Lab’s role in sustaining the Community Standards. Skip forward to about 35 minutes into the discussion, and Huebner describes how social networking environments can be empowered to bind together in ever more expanding groupings based on an individual’s level of trust, e.g., not just ban or mute an individual avatar but share one’s list of banned avatars with your social network and have others include in their mute or banned lists those generated by a peer. Brian Levin’s article “Cyberhate: A Legal and Historical Analysis of Extremists’ Use of Computer Networks in America” (The American Behavioral Scientist: Feb 2002: 45, 6; pp. 958-988 ) describes the use of communications technologies by rightwing activists and by the 1990s the rise of a purposeful effort for a ”leaderless resistance (p. 964).” As organized hate groups broke up as a consequence of legal actions against their violent actions, the Internet becomes crucial in supporting local activists. Social networking via the Web is critical to their success.
Tags: Ku Klux Klan, masculinity, tribal identity, white power
