African American Literature 20: Week 4-Thurs-David Walker

David Walker’s Appeal

Discussion Questions

The Social Construction of Race

Michael Omi and Howard Winant's definition of race does away with concept that race is

1) a biological fact and 2) an illusion.

Instead: race very real social classification that has both cultural ramifications as well as enforces a definite social order (54-55).

Racial Formation in the United States:

From the 1960s to the 1990s; Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986 and later editions.

“Race” is a social construction, not fixed, biological categories

Race is a social construction which alters over the course of time due to historical and social pressures.

Race is organizing principle

Race isn’t essence, it’s “an unstable and ‘decentered’ complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle” (68)

Racial formation has been a process which changed over time

Racial formation is the process by which socio-historical designations of race are created and manipulated.

Racial formation explains the definition and redefinition of specific race identities.

Early contact with Africans – exotic curiosities

Contact with small numbers of Africans – cultural rather than “racial” distinctions

Later contact with large numbers of Africans- Needed to justify subservience

White and black indentured servants; then some blacks become “slaves” for life.

Cultural Hegemony

Karl Marx (1818–1883) His work in economics laid the basis for the current understanding of labor and its relation to capital (money).

In sociology, the term “cultural hegemony” carries denotations and connotations derived from the Ancient Greek word “hegemony” = leadership and rule.

Karl Marx = precursor, 19^th century

In current Marxist philosophy, the term Cultural Hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class.

They manipulate the culture of the society — the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores — so that their ruling-class worldview becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm.

Cultural Hegemony

Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) developed the theory of cultural hegemony. He was a young Italian radical intellectual.

It becomes the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone.

Ordinary people are not told that this dominant ideology is really a series of artificial social constructs that primarily or only benefit the ruling class.

The ruling classes say their benefits will “trickle down” to the working classes.

“Political hegemony”

“

“Political hegemony” is the geopolitical method of indirect imperial dominance: imperialism.

The “hegemon” (leader: nation-state) rules subordinate states by the implied means of power (the threat of intervention).

Nowadays, dominant nations try to maintain power by indirect threat of force and economic sanctions

rather than by direct military intervention (invasion, occupation, or annexation).

But they are increasingly being drawn into direct military force, as in the Middle East.

America has a hegemonic "ruling class" – the top 1 percent

Who Rules America? Prof. G. William Domhoff, UC Santa Cruz

America is theoretically a republic and a democracy but according to Prof. Domhoff, it has a "ruling class," a circle of wealthy and powerful families that run the banks, businesses, and government, essentially controlling everything in America.

The top 1 percent are executives, doctors, lawyers and politicians, among other things.

Within this group of people is an even smaller and wealthier subset of people, 1 percent of the top, or .01 percent of the entire nation.

America has a hegemonic "ruling class" – the top 1 percent

According to Forbes Magazine

(national business publication)

Those people have incomes of over $27 million, or roughly 540 times the national average income.

Altogether, the top 1 percent control 43 percent of the wealth in the nation; the next 4 percent control an additional 29 percent.

Thus, the top 5 percent controls some 72% of the country’s wealth.

The remaining 95% of the country tries to get by on 25% of the country’s wealth.