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Although we are concerned that our use of the term white separatistism may be viewed as "taking sides " by some, we hope that the term will be seen as a social scientific concept useful in analyzing the current movement.
Dobratz and Shanks-Meile 1997:11
Our decision to call the contemporary movement separatist should not be construed to mean that we don't believe that most, if not all, whites in this movement feel they are superior to blacks.
Dobratz and Shanks-Meile 1997:124
The various labels of a movement we have called white separatist include organized racism, white power, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, white nationalist and white racialist movement. In this article we continue to examine the issue related to naming and defining the white separatist movement. This was initially discussed in our co-authored book entitled "White Power, White Pride!" The White Separatist Movement in the U.S. There are numerous implications for doing research on highly stigmatized groups, especially when the researchers strive to be relatively objective, conduct face to face interviewing and attend their events. Naming a particular movement is especially problematic when social scientists and organizations outside the movement challenge the labels of movement members themselves and there is also disagreement within the movement regarding appropriate labels. We explore a selected few of the myriad issues related to defining and explaining this movement.
In collecting data for our co-authored book entitled "White Power, White Pride!" The White Separatist Movement in the U.S., we studied the white separatist movement (WSM) or the white power movement (WPM) including attending several public and private events of white separatists and engaging in numerous interviews with participants, many of them face-to-face. One of the major issues that a researcher of a highly stigmatized movement faces is the labeling of the movement. Movement members, watchdog groups, social scientists, the media, and outsiders all seem to have their own views. Indeed it is also clear that not everyone within the movement agrees with any particular label either. We argue here that separatism represents a valid sociological concept and should be considered an applicable label even though there are concerns expressed by certain claimsmaker or watchdog organizations and social scientists.
The introduction of the idea of a separate nation-state of whites only as a...