In a new book, Griggstown resident and sociologist Martin Oppenheimer distinguishes between militancy and terrorism.
By:Josh Appelbaum
When Martin Oppenheimer sought to give a reading of The Hate Handbook (Lexington Books, $22.95) at a local chain book retailer that’s frequented in mid-afternoons by moms with baby carriages, he was told the book didn’t quite fit into the store’s "comfort zone."
"Some people have said we should have chosen a different title," Dr. Oppenheimer says. "’This one’s really in-your-face’ but I keep saying, ‘It’s supposed to be in-your-face.’"
The 96-page book, which contains ironic anecdotes and detailed stories of oppressors and the oppressed, concerning instances of bigotry, hatred and violence, the author says, is about understanding why people hate. The book also includes Dr. Oppenheimer’s experiences as a German Jewish émigré living in New Jersey as a boy, and his involvement in the social movements of the 1960s.
But the intention is to inform readers of what they can do to lessen hatred and violence. The slim volume shows a hooded Klansman on the front cover, but also delves into the seemingly inert social patterns that give rise to hate crimes.
"People who are haters are not going to read this book, except by accident," he says wryly. "When they get to the second page, they’ll throw it out or burn it."
Dr. Oppenheimer taught sociology at Rutgers University from 1970 until the spring of 2005, when he retired as full-time professor. A former Princeton resident, he recently moved to the Griggstown section of Franklin Township. He still teaches a graduate sociology course in the spring at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his doctorate.
Although the idea behind The Hate Handbook came to Dr. Oppenheimer seven years ago, he says it was only after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that the handbook’s concept was fully realized. The author wrote about terrorism in his 1969 book, Urban Guerilla (Quadrangle Books, out of print), which dealt with urban guerilla warfare of the Black Power Movement. "There’s a short section on terrorism and I wanted to remind myself what I had written and (after re-reading it) I realized it didn’t make sense anymore," he says.
Dr. Oppenheimer says he was upset that after Sept. 11, the terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" were misused to characterize a broad range of behavior, from insurgency and sabotage to soldiering, and that the media continues to incorrectly use these labels.
He refers to a New York Times article from Dec. 9 that reports on six arson indictments for members of the Earth Liberation Front. The headline identifies members of the group as "ecoterrorists."
"Now that’s just not fair and what it does, of course, is to scare the hell out of people," Dr. Oppenheimer says. "Once you associate these ecological people (who in fact committed sabotage) with the label of terrorism, that really extends into some nasty criminal behavior. Maybe I don’t agree with (what they do), and if they’re found guilty, it’s criminal, but it’s certainly not equivalent to that guy who is running around in the hills of Afghanistan, and it is not (an attack on) the World Trade Center."
In The Hate Handbook, Dr. Oppenheimer frames the debate in terms of groups or individuals who justify their violent acts, no matter how heinous they might seem, as "acts carried out in the course of a justifiable war." He points out that the bombing of cities with little military value was justified in relative terms during World War II.
He says the handbook is very much about the political zeitgeist of the age of the so-called War on Terrorism. The author says his most successful works including his doctoral dissertation on the 1960 sit-ins in the American South have come at the crest of rapid social change and were unintentional. "Timing is everything," Dr. Oppenheimer says.
Just as Sept. 11 was the impetus for conceptualizing The Hate Handbook, the wake of the violence of 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated and groups like the Black Panthers gained visibility, made his biggest selling book, Urban Guerilla, popular.
And like The Hate Handbook, he describes Urban Guerilla as a "crossover" book. "I never thought to write books as strictly academic or esoterically academic," he says. "I write in such a way that a reasonably intelligent person can read it."
But even from Dr. Oppenheimer’s beginnings as a student of sociology, chance played a role in his course of study. From 1958-60, he worked for the Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors, he says, "to pay bills" while continuing his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
It was at the committee that he met people like Bayard Rustin, a political advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. He says the committee attracted "overlapping circles" of pacifists, socialists and integrationists who would later be active in the voter registration drives and militant activities as part of Civil Rights Movement later in the ’60s.
Having written a master’s thesis on Adolph Hitler’s social movements, Dr. Oppenheimer says he wanted to focus on minority groups for his doctorate, but struggled to develop a thesis. "Social movements were my thing," he says.
During his time at Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors, he had participated in various rallies for integration. But it was only when four black male students who attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College demanded to be served at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro that he found his topic. "It fell into my lap bam! on Feb. 1, 1960," he says.
Acting as an observer-participant, he traveled to about eight communities in three weeks and interviewed people involved in the sit-ins and compiled newspaper clippings. He then developed the case studies around a sociological framework that became his dissertation.
Dr. Oppenheimer’s research on social groups continues with The Hate Handbook, and it details the psychological effects of oppression and ways groups organize to challenge their oppressors.
"Even before they organize, I wanted to take a look at how they deal psychologically with being in a one-down situation, to be oppressed," Dr. Oppenheimer says.
He says the book aims to give the reader a point of reference to challenge hateful or bigoted speech and the ability to set the record straight. "It’s important to have some ammunition when someone makes an under-informed statement," Dr. Oppenheimer says.
Martin Oppenheimer will discuss The Hate Handbook on Talk To Me, hosted by Esther Mills, on Princeton TV 30, Feb. 1, 6:30 p.m. On the Web: www.princetontv.org. Dr. Oppenheimer will sign copies of the book and give a talk at the Princeton University Store, 36 University Place, Princeton, Feb. 2, 7 p.m. For information, call (609) 921-8500. On the Web: www.pustore.com