White Gangs

Although the number of gangs in general greatly expanded during the 20th century, such gangs have earlier roots in U.S. history. The spread of the industrial revolution during the 1800s contributed to their growth, as did increased immigration. This entry examines the historical background of White gangs, explores their roots in the values underlying slavery, describes the Christian Identity movement, and briefly reviews the state of White gangs in America.

America's first White gangs began in urban centers in the Northeast along Euroethnic divisions. They bonded together based on common language, culture, and their connection to their region or country of origin. Each major wave of first-generation Euroethnic gangs acted as a resistance movement to thwart the loss of their ethnic identity through assimilation and as protection against violent discrimination from native-born Americans. Native-born Americans have traditionally felt threatened economically and culturally by each new Euroethnic group, whom they felt did not share similar economic, religious, and cultural values. Early America was predominantly White and Protestant. These perceived differences among new White ethnic immigrant groups stocked fears of loss of economic power and cultural dominance.

During the early 1800s, Irish-Catholic immigrants flooded into America, causing many native-born Americans to feel threatened by a White, yet culturally and religiously different, ethnic group. The influx of Irish immigrants caused an increase in discrimination and violence, which in turn caused the Irish immigrants to form gangs out of a need for protection. Yet, the racial and ethnic undertones of early America's White gangs and conflicts were generally propaganda to justify competition over territory, political power, and control of lucrative criminal enterprises. Even so, this pattern of discrimination and gang creation continued with each successive wave of immigrants, such as Italian, Jewish, and eastern European ethnic groups, into the 1920s. As each time a new wave of immigrants appeared, the native-born population felt a need to protect and reinforce the idea of America being a Protestant, Anglo-Saxon country against waves of ethnic immigrants who might challenge their status as the dominant racial group in America.

Sociologist Frederick Thrasher, in his 1927 book The Gang, found that Chicago-based White gangs were comprised of poor White immigrant groups such as Polish, Italian, German, Slavic, and Swedish youth (Skolnick, 2002). After the [Page 893]Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II, many of the previously impoverished White underclass that produced White gang members gained entry into the middle class due to government programs stemming from the New Deal, the GI bill, and an exodus to new suburban areas through Federal Housing Administration loan programs.

In this transition, many White Americans began to lose much of their Euroethnic differentiation due to assimilation and declines in ethnic discrimination and religious persecution and became Americans. This single identity created a commonality among White Americans steeped in the need for racial superiority and cultural dominance based in the cultural racism of the American South.