DOC 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Ronald Takaki, White Supremacy, Eurocentrism
Document Summary
Key concepts: ideology, master narrative, american identity, contradiction, eurocentrism. Ideology: a system of beliefs, ideas become ideologies through repetition. All societies have ideologies (gender, religion, political parties, the economy, land use, etc) There are often multiple ideologies operating at the same time in any given society or situation. Ideologies affect how we see the world, how we behave, and how we rationalize our actions. Focus on the anecdote with the taxi driver because it shows that people think americans are all white. This explains why the taxi driver didn"t think that takaki was from the united states at first. Master narrative: the dominant story of us history that focuses on the stories of select european immigrants. Other groups of people are often excluded or diminished in conversations about us history. The master narrative is not a static ideology--it is an active process that changes over time. The master narrative is linked to power and authority.
