After reading, Forgeries of Memory and Meaning I have come to the conclusion of why Cedric J. Robinson argues that the new American social order and economy “required cultural discipline, social habituation, and political regulation. In my opinion, Robinson argues this because during 1915 there were many things that changed the minds of people. For example, after the film The Birth of a Nation directed by D.W. Griffith there was a number of crucial historical events. Which suggest that, “it was a moment during which the mapping of American culture was reinscribed” (Robinson,92). Meaning that American culture was no longer American culture, it was something that society had made it to be and therefore, there is a need for cultural discipline.
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Robinson felt that the racial discourse in The Birth of a Nation assists with the creation of cultural discipline. Mentioning things like, “Dixon and Griffith had framed race-mixing as a forbidden terrain” (Robinson,122). The story of the film was created by Thomas Dixon Jr. who wasn’t too fond of blacks. Griffith assured that the movie is “a historical presentation of the Civil War and Reconstruction Period, and is not meant to reflect on any race or people today. How could this be so when the picture this film painted was that blacks were animals and savages. Also, how could this be so when the story creator behind the film portrays black people as, “sensuous brute whose every physical feature was the mark of the jungle and the untamed animal” (Clark,101). This type of social behavior of society and the way people think is wrong, it was wrong then and it is wrong now. We should look beyond race or anything else when determining the quality of a person or anything of that nature. After, the film was released there was a number of historical events. For example, as I mentioned before the abduction and lynching of Leo Frank and the second Klan inauguration. This film corrupted the minds of people to believe that lynching and Klansmen were normal when in fact it
Robinson felt that the racial discourse in The Birth of a Nation assists with the creation of cultural discipline. Mentioning things like, “Dixon and Griffith had framed race-mixing as a forbidden terrain” (Robinson,122). The story of the film was created by Thomas Dixon Jr. who wasn’t too fond of blacks. Griffith assured that the movie is “a historical presentation of the Civil War and Reconstruction Period, and is not meant to reflect on any race or people today. How could this be so when the picture this film painted was that blacks were animals and savages. Also, how could this be so when the story creator behind the film portrays black people as, “sensuous brute whose every physical feature was the mark of the jungle and the untamed animal” (Clark,101). This type of social behavior of society and the way people think is wrong, it was wrong then and it is wrong now. We should look beyond race or anything else when determining the quality of a person or anything of that nature. After, the film was released there was a number of historical events. For example, as I mentioned before the abduction and lynching of Leo Frank and the second Klan inauguration. This film corrupted the minds of people to believe that lynching and Klansmen were normal when in fact it