Write an analytical review of a film based on concepts and theories discussed in class and found in the readings for this course. • You may access films through uml.kanopy.edu or any streaming service
Professor Ortiz SOCI 3520 Week 4 Lecture Topic: Symbolic Violence Bourdieu was concerned with how social order and restraint, especially in relation to how control of lower classes was able to succeed so smoothly. Part of how order and social control persist is not through direct, physical coercion. Such a form of violen ce is not entirely sustainable -- it draws far too much attention to itself, it’s difficult to get people to agree to such a system over time. Instead, symbolic violence is incredibly useful. This form of violence is about words or actions used to negate a nother’s value or being in service of maintaining the dominant group’s power. symbolic violence is embodied in language and images — it's the subtle forms of coercion that sustain dominance. It includes blows, verbal put‐downs, and insults about the self. It includes threats, physical destruction of objects close to or cherished by the other, and containing the other through intimidation or implication that force will be used unless there is compliance. So violence doesn’t need actual physical harm to be cau sed; physical force does not need to be used to keep people in line. Symbolic violence is exercised upon you with your complicity. You agree to and consent to forms of violence by letting them slide by and by conforming to their terms and conditions given to you. The social practices that are imposed on us in our daily lives, those actually sustain stratification far more than physical violence, especially because we don’t notice them.We behave in conformity with dominant power structures not because we w ere beaten or enslaved, but because we accept these terms as legitimate, as self -evident, as just the ways things are. This happens when people follow cultural codes of conduct, when we ‘behave in the proper, expected manner’ according to role expectatio ns for one’s class, gender, race or other marker of social subjectivity. We become enmeshed in power relations that disempower us in some way by reinforcing institutionalized forms of social subordination. Symbolic violence also involves the moral impos ition of irrational beliefs that work against our own capacity for freedom, including freedom of thought. Extreme examples would be a cult or even a religion (Marx would agree with this!). Legally allowable activities that disrupt or influence the democr atic flow of civil life in favor of “higher powers” and against the well -being or rights of citizens or workers are also forms of this violence. So the coercive/persuasive political actions that generate social policy against the public interest, such as c orporate lobbying which some would say disrupts the integrity of democratic processes and selectively victimizes certain members of the population would be an example. And while Symbolic violence may seem like a far cry from murder or physical assault, o fficial policies that govern the unequal distribution of wealth can very easily produce human death and social suffering, and that is violence when such laws go unchallenged and we consent to them. Moral regulation, economic servitude or political contro l through the direct manipulation of the thoughts and behaviors of people results in destructive harm that is incompatible with the values of individual freedom of choice and the right to self -protection. So we may say symbolic violence is evident when our conscious choice to act in our own best interest has been tampered with or violated (if not denied). and this is done as part of the normal functioning of organizations and a society that survive on the basis of allowable subjugation of certain classes or groups. As your materials from last week alluded to, this population is subjected to violence that may be fully legal and not at all physical. Often, when this population and violence are discussed, gang violence becomes a key topic. We hear from news media that Latino gangs, drug dealers, and sex traffickers are to be feared, as they are, we are told, major sources of violence for “Americans.” I have these videos below that are linked to interviews with King Tone, the former leader of the Latin Kings. I think they provide an interesting way to approach symbolic violence, gangs, and this population. In this first video, King Tone discusses the role of race in shaping which criminals are targeted . In this second video, recorded while King Tone was still in prison, he questions how we commonly think of violence , and suggests the poverty and racism wh ich breeds crime is itself violence. It also looks at his programming with young men of color in prison, a form of resistance. Another form of resistance can be dance/music. This video looks at Bomba, which has become a part of #BLM demonstrations.
