Shock Jocks, the Radical Right and the Roots of Trumpism
Channel: UC Berkeley Events
Date: 2021-12-16

On December 2, 2021, Professor Cynthia A. Young (Penn State University) joined IGS for the Race, Ethnicity and Immigration Colloquium (learn more: https://bit.ly/3BlADON). 

Tracing the origins of our current U.S. culture of intolerance and fear back to 9/11, Professor Young's talk first considered the role of Glenn Beck, a right-wing shock jock and Fox pundit who exploited the rhetoric and iconography of the Civil Rights Movements in promoting  Islamophobic and racist views. Beck's meteoric rise fueled and coincided with the emergence of the Tea Party and the decentralization of the anti-immigration movement, phenomenons which, following the election of Barack Obama, yielded increasing mobilized militias and so-called "patriot" self-defense groups. Professor Young argues that these three elements — shock jock celebrity, the Tea Party, and white self-defense groups — were key ingredients fueling white xenophobia and anti-black racism in the first two decades of the 21st century.

Presented by the Institute of Governmental Studies; co-sponsored by the Center for Race & Gender and Comparative Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley.