Part 2- The International Experience
B. Ethnic Conflict and Collective Cultural Reifications of Identity
During this course, we have studied the plight of various ethnic groups within the context of American social
history. On the one hand, we have examined those who were involuntarily incorporated into American
society. These groups include: Native Americans, African-Americans, and Latino-Americans, in particular
Chicano-Americans. Additionally, we have referenced the experiences of those who came to the United States
in what is often referred to as “waves” of immigration from various parts of the world, but mostly from
Western and Eastern Europe, as well as from Asia, including waves of Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
These groupings were subjected to a wide range of reification experiences that included racialization of
their ethnicity and culture, as well as their geographic spatialization. Analyze these experiences in terms
of reification in order to illustrate the various forms of illogic applied in ways transform them into
subordinated/subaltern groups.
C. The Holocaust, Rwandan Genocide, and Other Examples of Genocide and Mass Atrocity
Our study of reification culminates in a focus on genocide and mass atrocity. We have examined the
dynamics of reification, dehumanization, demonization, ideological logics of illogic against the background
of historic violence and virulent ethnic conflict. As we come to the end of the course, we ask that you reflect
on the tragedy of genocide and mass atrocity using the conceptual, analytical, and explanatory “tools” that
we have presented. Consider the dynamics of introjection and projection, the drive toward supremacism, and
nativism which are so central to the Holocaust and Rwandan Genocide. Feel free to include other examples,
but remember your primary task to apply the framework of analysis we have developed in Nations and
Nationalities to a deeper understanding of hatred as it appears to foment large-scale brutal violence. Apply
reification to an analysis of the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, or other examples particularly in
ways designed to show how ideological doctrine becomes the equivalent of what is perceived to be
social or cultural reality.
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