ERIC Number: EJ1152372
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1066-5684
EISSN: N/A
The Illusion of Freedom: Tyranny, Whiteness, and the State of US Society
Matias, Cheryl E.; Newlove, Peter M.
Equity & Excellence in Education, v50 n3 p316-330 2017
Despite boasting its self-characterization as the "land of the free," US American "freedom" is, at times, tainted with historical amnesia, hypocrisy, and inhumanity. This article examines today's socio-political climate by drawing from de Tocqueville's (2003) prediction that American democracy is a tyranny of the majority. Because tyranny relies on gaslighting and dismissing facts, no definitive portraiture of freedom is made; therefore, the tyrannized wonder whether they are truly living within freedom or, instead, in collective submission to its illusion. This article examines this phenomenon in order to investigate how whiteness (re)produces conditions of disillusionment and tyranny. By employing hermeneutics of whiteness as a methodology, the authors investigate how whiteness infiltrates thoughts/epistemology, speech/rhetoric, emotions/emotionality, and nationalistic symbols/semiotics. The authors analyze implications for US education and offer a plea for all to consider.
Descriptors: Misconceptions, Freedom, Democracy, Social Attitudes, United States History, Whites, Hermeneutics, Epistemology, Discourse Analysis, Rhetoric, Nationalism, Semiotics, Educational Practices, Authoritarianism, Power Structure, Ideology
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A