Ideological+514+Spring+B

Ideological Criticism //For critics interested in rhetoric on Beliefs and Values; whose focus is on an Ideology of a group! // By:Kevin Sokol & Matthew Machia __***Part I: Explaining Ideological Criticism* **__


 * It is criticism for those who are primarily interested in what rhetoric suggests about beliefs and values (Foss, 2009). **
 * The critic looks beyond the surface structure of the artifact to find a pattern of beliefs and values that’s determines a specific groups worldview.
 * A “Mental framework “which includes the language, categories, thoughts, imagery and belief system.
 * Beliefs comprise an IDEOLOGY!
 * A foundation for attitudes, motives.
 * Examples of Ideology: patriotism, Christianity, multi-culturalism, conservatism and 12 set programs. These examples involve “ a set of patterns of beliefs” and “attitudes and actions towards the belief”


 * Multiple ideologies and belief patterns exist in many artifacts (Foss, 2009)! **


 * Some ideologies are privileged over others.
 * Ideologies that present oppositional or alternative perspectives are sometime repressed.


 * A dominate way of seeing the world? Did you say hegemony? What is hegemony (Foss, 2009)? **


 * Hegemony is the privileging of the ideology of one group over that of other groups. It set up a system of social control.
 * Evokes symbolic coercion or domination of by more power full groups over the ideologies of those groups with less power


 * <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 16px;">More on Hegemony (Foss, 2009): **


 * <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Since a most powerful/dominate ideology controls a position of worldview, a dominate norm is established.
 * <span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Dominant ideologies are not always deliberately established; we may participate in dominant ideology even though we have different personal ideologies that we believe. Think regular cultural activities such as watching TV and going to school.

__**<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">Types of ideological criticism: **__


 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Marxism: __**<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Analyzes cultural products and the social/economic produce. Marxism also takes a look at the institutions that have made the actual product (Foss, 2009).
 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Postmodernism __**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">: __<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Based on the theory of discontinuity is society. Postmodernism is wrapped up in the notion culture and society has arrived in a new era. The era was spurred on by the media and technology that have brought forth new ways for society to communicate.
 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Structuralism __****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">: **<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Focuses on linguistics and grammar to uncover meaning and ideological relationships in artifacts. An example of structuralism is semiotics; the study of signs (Foss, 2009) <span style="color: #c00000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">.
 * **__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Deconstructionism __****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">: **<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The taking apart of a text (song, manuscript, speech etc) to find the underlying meaning of the work. Deconstructionism also looks for bias and preconceptions. It conceptualizes the work by critically analyzing the structure and assumptions of the text (Foss, 2009).


 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Also, do not forget about articulation theory and culture which looks for relationships and specific connections between ideological elements to discover how they construct certain ways of thinking, being and acting //and// how all of the thinking, being and acting exists in a social construct (Foss, 2009). **

**__<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 180%;">*Part II: The Artifact* __** <span style="background-color: #1f497d; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 180%;">Let’s put some ideological criticism into practice. To do this we have selected the song “Accidental Racist” by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J. We will use Deconstructionism to rip apart the song and figure out what these gentlemen are trying to say. <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 180%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">media type="youtube" key="KSurzeGvPrQ?feature=player_detailpage" height="360" width="640" __**<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">Identifying and Describing Accidental Racist through Deconstructionism: **__
 * The purpose of the song is to address how even today we judge people by their skin color and culture.


 * We do not allow ourselves to get to know anyone personally before we start judging.

__** Verse 1. Wearing a southern flag on his shirt, does not symbolize he is racist, he is just proud of where he is from **__


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">However others will see him as a racist redneck before knowing his intentions
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">With the post modernism approach, media (movies, TV shows, news, etc.) has put the image in our mind that people who wear southern flags are racist rednecks.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">As soon as we see someone dressed as they are on TV we quickly judge

__** Chorus (Verse 2). We can’t re-write history, what has happened is in the past. Southern pride is now caught in southern blame (racism). **__


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> “Our generation didn’t start this nation.”
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Our immediate judgments come from the past the previous generations caused.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">It wasn’t our generation that uses black people as slaves.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">We are still trying to salvage all the wrong doings that have happened in the past.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">To the general consensus of people the southern flag is tied to the days of slavery.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The southern flag to people in the south is just a place they are proud to be from, while not being racist.

__ **Verse 3. “… still siftin’ through the rubble…” (Shift from Modernism to Postmodernism)** __


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">We are still fighting over the past.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">As white people, we can try and put ourselves in other cultures (African American’s) shoes.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">But how can we feel all the suffering and racism they have seen for so many years.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">We are in a new era, and our past is still with us.

__** Verse 5. “…guilty of judgin’ the cover not the book…” **__


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Anyone can attest to judging someone by their looks before understanding who they really are.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Using structuralism, some black people have different linguistics <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">.
 * Comparing during the song, the difference from LL Cool J and Brad Paisley.
 * In order to fully understand where someone is coming from and their intentions we must get to know them.
 * “…<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air…”
 * Because of the racist interactions in the past, we are quickly to use our past to judge the present, excluding the fact it is a new era.

__ **Verse 6. They talk about whom they are and their culture.** __


 * ** They go on the basic don’t judge me for these and I wont judge you for those. **
 * “…don’t judge my gold chains…”, “I’m just a white man… from the southland…”
 * We each have cultures describing where we are from, but not who we are.
 * This is a new era; racism came from the past and should stay there; (Postmodernism) (Foss, 2009) <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">.


 * __ Verse 7. “… past is the past.. let bygones be bygones…” More Postmodernism (Foss, 2009) __**


 * ** This is a postmodern era, “I’m a son of the new south”. **
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">It is no longer the old south where white people chain up black people as slaves.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">We can’t be so quickly to judge based on the past notions.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">We need to embrace the new era and start anew.

__<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 190%;">***Concept Summary*** __
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The song, //Accidental Racist// encompasses the Articulation Theory, “…establishment of a relationship among elements (such as beliefs, practices and values) so that their identity is transformed” (Foss, 2009, p. 213). Brad Paisley and Cool J are taking old beliefs, practices and values and transforming them to a new era/generation. They address how we accidentally judge someone based on past events, that we ourselves were not a part of. We no longer need to use old beliefs, and old experiences. We need to use current experiences to gauge who someone is. By using deconstructionism we can get to the heart of the song and also see elements of structuralism, postmodernism. **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">You have heard what we have to say, now lets say what Brad and LL have to say for themselves. Thanks for reading and watching! **

media type="youtube" key="IrrClRTc_fk?feature=player_detailpage" height="360" width="640" __**<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Reference: **__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Foss, S. (2009). //Rhetorical Criticism, Exploration and Practice.// (4 ed., Vol. 63). Long Grove: Waveland Press Inc.