Individual Presentation or Panel Title
Brenda’s Baby’s Got a Gun: Open Carry Activism as a Tool for White Privilege
Abstract
In the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death, the NRA lobbied multiple states throughout the nation to adopt Stand Your Ground Laws, calling it “vital self-defense legislation.” In this thesis I explore how the rhetoric of the NRA, present in its speeches, blogs, and video talk shows on the NRA’s website, tells or avoids the story of racial bias in open carry activism and gun control laws, which has played a fundamental role in designating people of color as “non-citizens.” I use a discourse analysis through a lens of critical race theory to argue that NRA rhetoric, which claims open carry to be a right for all American citizens, does not reflect reality. In reality, the NRA relies upon criminalized and demonized black bodies to institute a racialized fear among whites through rhetoric that contains implicit racialized words and racialized frames of self-defense.
Location
Janney Lounge
Start Date
11-4-2015 2:30 PM
End Date
11-4-2015 3:20 PM
Brenda’s Baby’s Got a Gun: Open Carry Activism as a Tool for White Privilege
Janney Lounge
In the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death, the NRA lobbied multiple states throughout the nation to adopt Stand Your Ground Laws, calling it “vital self-defense legislation.” In this thesis I explore how the rhetoric of the NRA, present in its speeches, blogs, and video talk shows on the NRA’s website, tells or avoids the story of racial bias in open carry activism and gun control laws, which has played a fundamental role in designating people of color as “non-citizens.” I use a discourse analysis through a lens of critical race theory to argue that NRA rhetoric, which claims open carry to be a right for all American citizens, does not reflect reality. In reality, the NRA relies upon criminalized and demonized black bodies to institute a racialized fear among whites through rhetoric that contains implicit racialized words and racialized frames of self-defense.