Stratagems and heuristics in the recruitment of children into communities of hate: The fabric of our future nightmares

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to examine the techniques used by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to recruit children to their organization through their “Just for Kids” Web site. For reasons described in the present work, this site is significant and highly accessible to children. The theoretical lens developed for this research was derived from Whillock's (1995) analysis of the hate stratagem (a technique used to influence through trickery) and the literature on persuasive heuristics (persuasive cues that enhance the likelihood children will process the persuasive message uncritically). It is concluded that reliance on trickery and the encouragement of superficial message processing provide an ideal climate for the operation of hate appeals. The article discusses the implications this work has for our understanding of the hate stratagem, antiracist discourse, communicative interventions, and critical analyses of racist discourse.

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