6 Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans
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Sofya Aptekar
Abstract
The US government has deported thousands of US military veterans as part of the racist system of criminalization and incarceration. This chapter examines the shared countermemory project with which deported veterans establish their claims of belonging in the United States. The very existence of deported veterans explodes many US cultural schemes around veterans and the military. Drawing on materials produced by deported veterans, interviews, and fieldwork, I show the tensions and struggles between this shared and social autobiographical memory work and the dominant schema through which veterans, immigrants, and deviance are commonly understood. The ways that deported veterans co-construct and use autobiographical memories in response to challenges posed to their mnemonic authority stretch official collective meanings of military service and the nation. I consider the complexities of studying this countermemory work in the context of hegemonic US militarism and complicity with US imperial violence and offer questions that open possibilities themselves contained in the memories of deported veterans.
Abstract
The US government has deported thousands of US military veterans as part of the racist system of criminalization and incarceration. This chapter examines the shared countermemory project with which deported veterans establish their claims of belonging in the United States. The very existence of deported veterans explodes many US cultural schemes around veterans and the military. Drawing on materials produced by deported veterans, interviews, and fieldwork, I show the tensions and struggles between this shared and social autobiographical memory work and the dominant schema through which veterans, immigrants, and deviance are commonly understood. The ways that deported veterans co-construct and use autobiographical memories in response to challenges posed to their mnemonic authority stretch official collective meanings of military service and the nation. I consider the complexities of studying this countermemory work in the context of hegemonic US militarism and complicity with US imperial violence and offer questions that open possibilities themselves contained in the memories of deported veterans.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
-
Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
-
Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
-
Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
-
Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
-
Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
-
Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
