Reflections on researching armed Nazis as an unarmed left-wing Jew : politics, privilege, and practical concerns

Winter, Aaron (2024) Reflections on researching armed Nazis as an unarmed left-wing Jew : politics, privilege, and practical concerns. In: The ethics of researching the far right : Critical approaches and reflections. Racism, Resistance and Social Change . Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 9781526173874

Abstract

The title is from my response, during my viva, to the question why I decided not to do an ethnography of and interviews with the far or extreme right. It is something I have been asked about many times since, particularly during the ethnographic turn in the social sciences and more recent resurgence of the far right. This chapter will reflect on my research experience and decisions about how to engage with the far right as part of a wider examination of the racial politics of research on the far right. Most notably how research into the far right often: 1. underplays race and racism; 2. assumes the whiteness and white privilege of the researcher, and relies on white ignorance, including when it comes to the challenges, risks and harms to racialised and otherwise targeted researchers; and 3. underplays its politics and subjectivity while constructing anti-racist and anti-fascist work as biased, political or non-objective. I will discuss these issues and their implications, as well as how addressing them can help us understand and oppose racism more effectively and promote a more reflexive and anti-racist approach to far right studies. Keywords: Far Right, racism, antisemitism, whiteness, anti-racism, ethnography, interviews, ethics, risks; objectivity.