{"id":7873,"date":"2009-03-24T02:22:46","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T07:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=7873"},"modified":"2017-10-01T22:52:33","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T03:52:33","slug":"volunteer-virtual-border-guards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/03\/24\/volunteer-virtual-border-guards\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer Virtual Border Guards"},"content":{"rendered":"

The controversial\u00a0Minuteman Project<\/a> encourages citizens to volunteer their time guarding the U.S.\/Mexico border against illegal immigration.\u00a0 Well, if you are disinclined to wander the border desert, you can now be a virtual<\/em> Minuteman.\u00a0 Sandra H. N. sent us a link to BlueServo<\/a> where you can click on a series of webcams.\u00a0 Each webcam is\u00a0pointed at a spot where there may be illegal border crossings.\u00a0 Here’s\u00a0a screenshot of the webcams you can select from:<\/p>\n

\"image1\"<\/p>\n

Here’s a video about the project:<\/p>\n

[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QCxXlPrxV7c[\/youtube]<\/p>\n

Here’s a description of a virtual border guard from an NPR\u00a0story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[He] pops a Red Bull, turns on some Black Sabbath or Steppenwolf, logs in to www.blueservo.net \u2014 and starts protecting his country. “This gives me a little edge feeling,” Fahrenkamp says, “like I’m doing something for law enforcement as well as for our own country.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a fascinating convergence of patriotism, masculinity, class, and (likely) race.\u00a0\u00a0 Minutemen protect (white) America\u00a0by putting their bodies on the border, but now men can do so without the trappings of masculinity that Minutemen can lay claim to.\u00a0 Instead, if they have a computer with a (quick) \u00a0internet connection, they can defend America\u00a0from behind a computer screen and, perhaps, lay claim to at least some of the masculine capital that Minutemen on the border earn by putting their bodies on the line.<\/p>\n

From another angle:\u00a0 I wish Foucault were alive today.\u00a0 Any Foucauldians out there who want to comment on this virtual panopticon?<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The controversial\u00a0Minuteman Project encourages citizens to volunteer their time guarding the U.S.\/Mexico border against illegal immigration.\u00a0 Well, if you are disinclined to wander the border desert, you can now be a virtual Minuteman.\u00a0 Sandra H. N. sent us a link to BlueServo where you can click on a series of webcams.\u00a0 Each webcam is\u00a0pointed at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2056,237,2125,276,285,1754,290],"class_list":["post-7873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crimelaw","tag-drugs","tag-immigrationcitizenship","tag-nationalismpatriotism","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-latinos","tag-sciencetechnology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7873"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71992,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873\/revisions\/71992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}