MDST*1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Straw Man, Ad Hominem, Meritocracy
Key Concepts for Critical Thinking
As DiAngelo and Sensoy write, “We have been socialized into a limited view, focusing
on single situations, exceptions, and anecdotal evidence, rather than on broader,
interlocking patterns.”
Oppression
-The prejudice and discrimination of one social group against another, backed by
institutional power. Oppression occurs when one group is able to enforce its
prejudice and discrimination throughout society because it controls the
institutions.
-Occurs at the group or macro level, and goes well beyond individuals.
-Describes a set of policies, practices, traditions, norms, definitions, and
explanations (discourses), which function to systematically exploit one social
group to the benefit of another social group.
Ideology
-The big, shared ideas of a society that are reinforced throughout all of the
institutions.
-The stories, myths, representations, explanations, definitions, and
rationalizations that are used to justify inequality in the society. Ex. individualism
and meritocracy.
-Ideologies normalize, rationalize, and naturalize.
Discourse
-The academic term for meaning that is communicated through language, in all of
its forms. Discourses include myths, narratives, explanations, words, concepts,
and ideology.
-Includes not only what we say, but also what we don't say.
-are not universally shared among humans; represent a particular worldview and
are shared among members of a given culture.
-Discourse is different from ideology because it refers to all of the ways in which
we communicate ideology, including verbal and nonverbal aspects of
communication, symbols, and representations.
Hegemony
-The imposition of dominant group ideology onto everyone in society.
-Enables domination to occur with the consent of the minoritized group-rather
than by force.
-Includes the ability to define and impose self-discipline on others in ways that
serve dominant group interests.
-In order to oppress, a group must hold institutional power in society. In this way,
the group is in the position to impose their worldview on others and control the
ideas (ideologies), political rules, and social rules for communication (discourses)
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Document Summary
As diangelo and sensoy write, we have been socialized into a limited view, focusing on single situations, exceptions, and anecdotal evidence, rather than on broader, interlocking patterns. The prejudice and discrimination of one social group against another, backed by institutional power. Oppression occurs when one group is able to enforce its prejudice and discrimination throughout society because it controls the institutions. Occurs at the group or macro level, and goes well beyond individuals. Describes a set of policies, practices, traditions, norms, definitions, and explanations (discourses), which function to systematically exploit one social group to the benefit of another social group. The big, shared ideas of a society that are reinforced throughout all of the institutions. The stories, myths, representations, explanations, definitions, and rationalizations that are used to justify inequality in the society. The academic term for meaning that is communicated through language, in all of its forms. Discourses include myths, narratives, explanations, words, concepts, and ideology.
