Racism by Designation: Making Sense of Western States’ Nondesignation of White Supremacists as Terrorists

Búzás, Zoltán I.; Meier, Anna A.

Abstract

How can we make sense of Western states’ nondesignation of white supremacists as terrorists compared to other actors engaged in similar political violence? This article offers three arguments and supports them with rich case studies of designation in the United States and the United Kingdom. First, the racially disparate impact of designations can be understood as a form of institutional racism. Second, within the Western racial order, Arabs/Muslims are stereotypically seen as terrorists, whereas whites benefit from the presumption of not being terrorists. The result is a racial double standard at the core of the norm against terrorism, such that white supremacists are disproportionately less likely to be designated as terrorists than other groups. Third, we caution against viewing the few recent white supremacist designations as transformative and overestimating their ability to deracialize counterterrorism.

Citation

Búzás, Z. I., & Meier, A. A. (2023). Racism by Designation: Making Sense of Western States’ Nondesignation of White Supremacists as Terrorists. Security Studies, 32(4-5), 680-713. https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2023.2230882

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 2, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 10, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2025
• Journal: Security Studies
• Print ISSN: 0963-6412
• Electronic ISSN: 1556-1852
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 4-5
• Pages: 680-713
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2023.2230882
• Keywords: Political Science and International Relations; Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/16223767
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09636412.2023.2230882
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=fsst20; Published: 2023-07-10