I’m glad to hear you’re doing well at your university. We’ve covered a lot of new material in my Dimensions of Culture class since I last wrote you. One topic emphasized recently has been the concept of counter-hegemony, which, intuitively, is defined as opposing the existing hegemony. In layman 's terms, a hegemony simply refers to the status quo engrained into the constructs of a society. Many of the standards which we label to be “common-sense” or “normal” are truly just hegemony in application. To clarify, counter-hegemonic movements do not, and cannot, remove hegemonic power entirely from society, but rather serve to change underlying ideologies. To better understand the complexities of counter-hegemony, one must examine a real world
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However, there is still controversy surrounding effectiveness of their methods. While social programs like Free Breakfast for Children and community health clinics successfully spread to dozens of major cities across the U.S, they ultimately failed to achieve the main goals detailed in the party’s original platform. Arguably, the legacy of the Black Panther Party was their ability to ‘militarize’ a large number of black Americans and spread the principles of violence and self-defense as counter-hegemonic tools. Many argue that the Black Panther Platform’s encouragement of physical resistance was necessary as protection from rampant police brutality, however, other critics claim that their promotion of combat and a ‘gang mentality’ merely increased violence indiscriminate of race and created a blind disrespect for authority. Needless to say, there have been significant strides in racial equality since 1966, but cases like the recent shooting of Michael Brown suggest that society is not be progressing as fast as it may seem. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of the Black Panther Platform, I believe that strong counter-hegemonic platforms are sometimes the only way to break away from the unyielding equilibrium which society often finds itself stuck
However, there is still controversy surrounding effectiveness of their methods. While social programs like Free Breakfast for Children and community health clinics successfully spread to dozens of major cities across the U.S, they ultimately failed to achieve the main goals detailed in the party’s original platform. Arguably, the legacy of the Black Panther Party was their ability to ‘militarize’ a large number of black Americans and spread the principles of violence and self-defense as counter-hegemonic tools. Many argue that the Black Panther Platform’s encouragement of physical resistance was necessary as protection from rampant police brutality, however, other critics claim that their promotion of combat and a ‘gang mentality’ merely increased violence indiscriminate of race and created a blind disrespect for authority. Needless to say, there have been significant strides in racial equality since 1966, but cases like the recent shooting of Michael Brown suggest that society is not be progressing as fast as it may seem. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of the Black Panther Platform, I believe that strong counter-hegemonic platforms are sometimes the only way to break away from the unyielding equilibrium which society often finds itself stuck