Claim/Counterclaim & Support

The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media
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The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media
Racism is one of the key issues that affected the world in the last century and still affects some parts of the globe today. It attracted opinions and cries from various parts of the world, and Stuart Hall was one of the individuals who responded to this issue. Born in Jamaica Hall is one of the most popular cultural theorist, political activist and sociologist who worked in the United Kingdom. In his work, The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media, the author presents a basic summary of racism in pop culture in the world. The author begins to define what ideology concerning what individuals think is and later on defines what ideology from the media perspective. According to the author, the media presents ideologies in many ways and goes on to state that there are two types of racism overt racism and inferential racism. This essay will attempt to explore various aspects of racism and ideologies as presented by the author in his work.
Question 1 A
Individuals have different ideologies in regard to various social aspects in the society and these ideologies change with time and circumstances. According to the author, language is totally different from ideologies since different languages can be used to represent the same ideology and ideas. Language is the ability to acquire and use a complex system of communication. According to the author, images, concepts and premises can all be used to interpret and make sense of an idea.

Thus, linguistic can be used within different ideological discourses to represents ideas of individuals as they intended them to be interpreted by other people.
Question 1 B
Racism was and still spread throughout the world especially in the Arab countries and some Europeans countries. All over the years we have encountered and witnessed racism as an ideology. However, individuals and media can use different linguistic discourses to explain the same ideology in this case racism. To some, racism represents classes among the human races as they believe there are superior races than the others while to others; racism is a form of prejudice and discrimination where individuals are segregated because of their skin color. In addition, there are those who believe that racism is only practiced to show and distinguish the characteristics and one race from that of others. From the above example, it is easy to tell that different languages can be used to represent ideas and thus, language is totally different from ideologies.
Question 2
The author is also very clear in stating that an ideology is an articulation and connection of various elements and concepts thus forming and representing a chain of meaning. On the contrary, most individuals for a very long time have misunderstood an ideology to consist of isolated and separate ideas. For example, most individual crave for freedom, and as a result, we can take freedom as our ideology. However, freedom is interconnected and interrelated to other concepts such as individualism and civilized society. Besides, freedom has two broad concept positive and negative freedoms that influence both individual and group freedom. Moreover, different individuals may have different feelings and perspectives depending on the circumstances and background. As a result, it is clear that ideologies do not constitute of isolated and separate ideas but rather interrelated and interconnected concepts that are used to give a deep and inner meaning and insights on various things and ideas