Barbara Jean Fields argues that the “ideology”, or worldview, of the antebellum “White Yeomanry”, was neither “transmitted” to, nor “imposed”, on them.

Barbara Jean Fields

You should insure that the essay is a minimum of three full (3) pages in length, double spaced, and written in Times New Roman Font, 12pt. The margins cannot exceed an inch. You should choose only one (1) of the three (3) questions provided here. In the title, you should indicate only the number and not the complete text of the question. Your essay should meet all the expectations for a university level composition. For this exercise, block citations are not allowed. If you are using direct quotes from the text, they should not exceed two lines in length. Virtually all of your claims should be substantiated with the texts in question.

Barbara Jean Fields

To this end, you should indicate the whereabouts of the passages from the texts which corroborate these claims. Along with the author’s last name, you should accompany each claim with the page numbers for these passages. In the case where page numbers are not available, just the last name will do. Along with the ideas or arguments that you paraphrase, be sure to provide this source citation for the phrases and sentences that you reproduce exactly. I will evaluate this exam for its use of the texts, and for its careful attention, or lack thereof, to the selected question. Avoid the use of texts and sources outside of the assigned course readings, including Wikipedia, and/or other similar websites.https://youtu.be/p4TnqPHcJGU

Barbara Jean Fields

You should enclose within quotation marks all of those words, phrases, clauses, and/or sentences that are copied directly from the texts, without exception. A strategy to answer the exam can include meeting with other students to review the relevant class notes and readings. This does not imply that I will accept essays that are obviously shared and/or written collectively. You can have a collective discussion to develop a guide that is useful for writing the essay, but I will penalize all those essays evidently copied and/or reproduced among many.

Barbara Jean Fields

1) Barbara Jean Fields argues that the “ideology”, or worldview, of the antebellum “White Yeomanry”, was neither “transmitted” to, nor “imposed”, on them. Rather it derived from the “ritualized” ways they had to “negotiate” a “terrain” which they did not “control”. The outcome of this unequal negotiation was an “intersect” of “interests”, or “cooperation”, with the “ruling class”. Explain fully. Consider her example of the emergence of “race” as an “ideology”. Why does this worldview only become essential to the legitimacy of slavery during the second half of its two-century existence since British North American colonization, rather than during its first hundred years?

Barbara Jean Fields

What political and social changes in the “terrain” occurred to generate this “ideology” of “race”, and its necessity? Be sure to recount all of the changes. Finally, contemplate what this argument suggests about our capacity to interpret our social world. How free, or constrained might it be by the “terrains” we inhabit, and why?2) Arlie Russell Hoschild argues that a “Deep Story” sustains a “line cutting” metaphor that animates the thinking about politics and race among the working-class derived white Louisianans she interviewed.

Barbara Jean Fields

fully the “story” and the metaphor, with its allusions to the 1960s and the 1860s. What explanation does she offer for why they “gaze forward”, aping the social position of the “one-percenters”, rather than identifying with the non-white, women, LGTQ+, non-christian, and immigrant others? Consider the “enclosures” produced by the “walls” of the “plantation society” on their “imaginations” and social mobility, or fixed place in the line. Be sure to describe the nineteenth and twentieth century versions of this “society” and its impacts on the thinking and life circumstances of these white Louisianans.

Barbara Jean Fields

How might Barbara Jeans Fields’ explanation of the way that ideology works help us to explain how all of this induces them to “gaze forward”? Think through her arguments about how a “terrain” controlled by others results in an “intersect” of “interests”, or “cooperation”, with the “ruling class”.3) Ian Haney López argues that in spite of the actual content of their beliefs, “commonsense racism,” operates by disarming its practitioners of the conviction that they are racist.

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