This Thing Called Hegemony

EXCERPT From a Research Paper Titled "MAN UP Brother MAN UP: A Critical Response to Cool Pose"

This Thing Called Hegemony
According to Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci, there exists a class struggle, a conflict of sorts between the elite, or their oppressor and the underclass or the oppressed. Through the control of various religious educational and media institutions a hierarchical social control transmits ideology of the elite or oppressor. Coined, "hegemony," this struggle is constant between the classes (Gramsci, 1971). Examining hegemony through a racial lens, we're able to see, what is the opposite of white, not only in skin but additionally in philosophy, ideology, and even one’s language, must be negated. Again, this functions as a requisite for social control. Hall (2003) interprets media as the primary apparatus in this cycle of control and domination employed by those in power to “broadcast” various discourses, at will. Adjacent to agenda setting theory, which doesn’t tell one how to think but what to think about, Hall focuses his discussion on the issue of race. He states:
What they “produce” is, precisely, representations of the social world, images, descriptions, explanations and frames for understanding how the world is and why it works as it is said and shown to work. And amongst other kinds ideological labour, the media construct for us a definition of what race is, what meaning the imagery race carries, and what the “problem of race is understood to be.” They help to classify out the world in terms of the categories of race. (p. 90)
These same negations in turn serve as the foundation for the social classification of different peoples, otherwise known as the social constructions of race (Bonilla-Silva, 2003). According to Bonilla-Silva, "Race as well as gender has various social realities which produces real effects on the actors racialized as "black" or "white.'" If we extend these raced realities into the category of "black folk," this reality transforms into a negative personification of invisibility. As bell hooks (1992) states in her essay, “Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination:
Since most white people do not have to "see" black people (constantly appearing on billboards, television, movies and magazines, etc.) and they do not have to be ever on guard nor to observe black people to be safe, they can live as though black people are invisible, and they can imagine that they are also invisible to blacks. Some white people may even imagine that there is no representation of whiteness in the black imagination, especially one that has been based on concrete observation or mythic conjecture (p. 168-169).
In Black Skin White Masks, Franz Fanon (1953/1967) roots this invisibility to colonialism in his chapter, "The Negro and Psychopathology."
In magazines, the Wolf, the Devil, the Evil Sprit, The Bad Man, the Savage are always by Negroes or Indians; since there is always identification with the victor, the little Negro, quite as easily as the little white boy becomes an explorer, an adventurer, a missionary "who faces the danger of being eaten by the wicked Negroes. (p. 146)
Fanon believes there is a systematic attack on the Negro from all points and it begins with the conditioning on black children. He refers not only to the Tarzan stories but specifically targets the French educational system that praises all things European and condemns all things Antillean.
The Antillean has therefore to choose between his family and European society; in other words, the individual who climbs up into society-white and civilized-tends to reject his family-black and savage…. (p. 154)
Fanon continues this logic to up to where the Negro is reduced to the biological, to nothing more than a genital. (p. 165) Furthermore, in the eyes of the oppressor, the Negro (male) is perceived a sexual beast with a lusty uncontrollable appetite beyond that civilized white human being. One could say that Fanon accepts this sexual reduction but only inversely. What one does not understand, he destroys. For what one envies, he mocks. And thus there is this proliferation --this animalistic sexual myth of the Negro, for the purposes of this discussion, the Negro male.
Taking this invisibility at face value, we see that it cloaks opportunity, accessibility, and life chances to the point where many African-Americans live on the margins of reality. In a gendered sense this marginality has pitted man against women and transversely brother against sister. In a society where the dominant “other” maintains a firm grip on power, we can see how that power enables the ability for one to construct social hierarchies. In American society we see the social hierarchies placing White men at the top of the racial and gender pyramid. In stark contrast the African-American man is placed at the bottom. It if we look at hegemonic masculinity as, Patricia Hill Collins (2004) suggest, in the pretext of racial superiority we can link this raced masculinity to the physical strength, the bravado, exclusive heterosexuality, suppression of vulnerable emotions such as remorse and uncertainty, economic independence and authority over women and other men and intense interest in sexual conquest . In short these essentials are emblematic of masculinity through the eyes the dominant other. Anything less is considered inferior, subordinate and deviant.

On Matters of Captalism

Very interesting list, as much as I despise
capitalism, (it's a very nasty
business) I applaud these folks on their efforts...
Now as I say that--
critically speaking, how much do these folk really
touch base w- the masses
of the poor-- not too many I'd guess. Like I asked
Richard Parsons of Time
Warner, yes your networks have the quality
programming, but to get the
quality, one has to pay-- there are a lot more poor
people (especially
people of color) than middle class. His reply, well
he have the programs on
DVD and VHS and some are going to PBS. In other
words, nothing...

-----Original Message-----
From: Sistrumatic@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Sistrumatic@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Thorrin
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 11:30 AM
To: Sistrumatic@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Sistrumatic] influential minorities

Why do you despise capitalism? Or what aspects do you
not like? Please answer in english and not Russ-speak
;)

-Thorrin

-----Original Message-----

From: "russell robinson"
Subj: RE: [Sistrumatic] influential minorities
Date: Wed Aug 17, 2005 12:57 pm
Size: 9K
To:

You really want to have debate :-)
OK, The truth, 1037 G Hunting Ridge Road Speak:
Capitalism breeds foolishness. People die because of capitalism all in the
name of profit. Don't get it twisted-- everyone should have a nice pocket
but at the same time-- capitalism exploits poor people, especially poor
people of color all in the name of making money.. It's like a pyramid scheme
gone bad... Remember when we would play monopoly. The rule of the game was
to own the board-- ok cool but in the process, to win one of us would have
to go bankrupt. Even when we would play it on the commodore back in the day
and the man had to collect fishbones in a trashcan lid, the man was going
broke. I mean it was fun to laugh at then, but it's hard to laugh at now
when I see the gross ill distribution of wealth among the power elite. This
hand full of people, few who look like us, few who have come from the other
side of the tracks have distanced themselves, socially, economically,
spiritually, academically, you name it from people who look like them. As
for dying-- it boils down to the basic trisecta. Without money in a
capitalist society, you get no sex (from a partner) and in short it makes
no difference if you are healthy or not. Capitalism in my honest opinion
forces people to do a lot of ill mess. War, enslavement, exploitation, self
exploitation. Health care in this country states if you don't have blue
cross/blue shield/piece of the rock/or good hands/ there will be some hands
leading you to the ground if you have burial insurance. Some people can't
afford quality health care and subsequently die on the streets a death void
of dignity and grace. These same people I walk over, around, to get to
class at Howard, or here at home are invisible in capitalist world but they
are not invisible to me. In fact, their invisibility scares me because when
you think you are invisible, you think you can't be touched. It breeds
nihilism which is akin to insanity. When one is insane, they have no regard
for themselves, so why would they have any regard for you or me. This
behavior leads to self hate, self mutilation, self destruction and shrapnel
from a bomb to my knowledge has no set trajectory. I mean think about it, a
person with nothing to lose is a mindless Robie Craig with ready to play
with a Mac 10, a Mac 11, an AK 47, a M60 with two six shooters and three
belts of hand grenades. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be
around nobody like that let alone see them. Capitalism has bread this
Frankenstein, this colossus. (by the way Juggernaut is in X3) Capitalism
has no real love of humanity but more so love of money. For the love of
money, people don't care who they lie hurt or cheat. Event the black
church, the root of black folk, has become corrupted by capitalism. First
we would talk about the sick and shut in, and we'd pray for them. Then we
would take up an offering. We'd use the church as a point of activism
social activism. Now the black church is about making money. These
morality plays have now become Mediea plays to put money in somebody's
pocket. It's profiteering off of misery. Is it a bad thing, you decide.
There is also a mega church--which has gotten away from saving souls and
more concerned with membership. To me capitalism breeds racism, sexism,
classicism, homophobia, ageism, and a whole bunch of other isms I can live
without. In our country-- we are so hell bent on profit, we will put you in
jail over a library book but we will not get guns off the street to keep
people safe. Let's look at law. Everybody knows that Michael Jackson had
no business getting in bed with that boy, let alone saying the mess on TV.
Lo and behold, Mike got a damn good lawyer, and walked away like OJ. Point
made: you can buy any verdict in the court system in the United States of
America. But say Ray Ray got busted with the same thing-- he'd be busting
in the rocks in the hot sun till his head was gray, wrinkled or comatose.
Even the jurors on that case are now saying, we let a guilty man go free and
are writing books about it. Why-- cause that mess sells. There is no
interest in guilt or innocence, just ratings, profits and deals. We will
say it is ok to exploit women to sell anything-- malt liquor, regular liquor
Viagra, sports cars, airline tickets, cigarettes, other women, bombs,
political ideology to maintain a power structure a power structure that
wasn't designed by poor folk but yet strangle them on a daily basis. I'm
like how much money does one person really need? Don't get it twisted, I
don't want to be dead broke but I don't filthy rich either-- I just want to
enjoy life without being dictated on how to live my live my life under rules
that I didn't write down in the first place. Here's a brief example: I go
in to buy a new bed since we're buying a house-- white woman rolls up on me
first thing out her mouth is I bet you play in instrument don't you. My
response-- the radio in my car -- now back to this bed...somehow-- she's
gotten a message/commercial media or what have you that black men with locks
play instruments -- I know it's far fetched but damn, capitalism drives a
lot of ideology, politics, what we think is news (which is nothing more than
propaganda) religion, but it has yet to drive humanity or answer a question
of why we are here. Capitalism is a vehicle to spend money, subscribe to
what society (dominant) say what one aught to be and as I said before
encourage competition. It drives one to be better than. Never has
capitalism inspired one be better within themselves... It's like alcoholism,
an alcoholic realizes they have psychological dysfunction when they consume
alcohol. So they can survive the recognize the problem and navigate the
issue ergo they are productive in society. I'm not naive about capitalism--
I live in the society that breeds it but at the same time I limit my
involvement and participation cause the negative effects are so blatant to
me...