Ethnic Politics - 04a: The Use of Cultural Narratives in Collective Memory, Identity, and Values

Michael Rossi
Department of Political Science
Program in International Relations
Long Island University Brooklyn

Because of size and content, I've felt it necessary to divide this lecture into two parts. This first part examines what many regard as one of the predominant political cultures in the United States: a top-down ideology of national unity that must be maintained and defended at any and all costs; even at the expense of political and ethnic minorities. Thus, "national unity" is predominantly reserved for whites, and more specifically white patriots, and minority groups that accept the narrative as their own regardless of particular beliefs or values.

This discussion extends into an examination of the so-called "Lost Cause" narrative that began as a post-Civil War attempt at rehabilitating the old Confederacy within the larger United States. While there was a significant amount of whitewashing of the Confederate past and a glorification of its political and military leaders, it was not opposed by officials in the North, and even tacitly supported if it meant previous Confederates now aligned the loyalty and ideology with the US. This of course largely if not entirely, disregarded the views and values of emancipated Blacks, who were marginalized within the discourse.

The lecture ends with an assessment of the "Lost Cause" narrative providing a foundation of the values of national unity and a defense of national symbols and the military as elements of unity, and a subsequent demonization of anything that critiques this status quo.

The second part looks further into the efforts at rehabilitating Robert E. Lee and more recent attempts to reverse that; the commodification of Martin Luther King into an innocuous holiday; and an examination into efforts by many Christian conservative groups to rewrite school curriculum to advance a specifically Evangelical interpretation of the country's founding and its Founding Fathers.

Covered Readings:

Giroux, Henry: 2017. America at War with Itself. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books
“Introduction: The Sand Storm”, pp. 3 – 25
Ross, Marc Howard: 2007. Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict.
“Flags, Heroes, and Statues: Inclusive versus Exclusive Identity
Markers in the American South”, pp. 280 – 311

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00​ - 00:05:00​ - Introduction
00:05:00​ - 00:14:04​ - Recap of Last Lecture's Important Points
00:14:04​ - 00:26:45​ - An Assessment of the Culture of American Patriotism
00:26:45​ - 00:38:16​ - The Long-Lasting Legacies of Managed Patriotism
00:38:16​ - 00:44:14​ - Managed Patriotism and the Legacies of the Civil War
00:44:14​ - 01:00:21​ - The "Lost Cause" Narrative
01:00:21​ - 01:06:39​ - The "Lost Cause" and Print Capitalism
01:06:39​ - 01:18:04​ - The "Lost Cause" and its Contribution to Hegemonic American Patriotism

Видео Ethnic Politics - 04a: The Use of Cultural Narratives in Collective Memory, Identity, and Values канала Michael Rossi Poli Sci