The Social Studies of Domination: Cultural Hegemony and Ignorant Activism

Often, the word activism conjures up the image of what the media and others call "radicals," such as inflamed Mexican American college students, for example, who are passionate and emotional, demanding an immediate end to racism on their college campus. Some castigate activist participants as immature and unsophisticated, whereas others describe their actions as repugnant and counterproductive to democracy and the "American way of life." James S. Leming, in "Ignorant Activists: Social Change, "Higher Order Thinking," and the Failure of Social Studies" in Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong?, implies that activism and activists of the "radical" type are ignorant. In this article, the author points out that activism has been stereotyped, and participants can be portrayed as "ignorant" by way of various code words. He argues that physical activism is stereotyped precisely as radical and passionate, rather than logical, progressive, and rational, because people who are less privileged by the system have traditionally engaged in such practices; and questions what activism means as a practice for social change or, in the case of conservatives, as an agent to maintain or strengthen the current cultural hegemony of the United States.