Hegemony of the Western Knowledge System... By Kelson Maynard

 

It is a characteristic feature of the western knowledge production system to be hegemonic.  The knowledge system becomes so normalized that even the oppressed internalizes the knowledge as normal.  They become unconscious of the fact that knowledge is a construction.  A system of  representation influenced by a multitude of forces, all intending to perpetuate white supremacy.  Examples abound: the western knowledge system represented Africa as the dark continent- meaning that the people were ignorant, wild, primitive, unsophisticated, heathenistic.  Geographically, Africa is represented much smaller than it is.  Today, these representations still form the a priori assumptions that predicate knowledge and thinking about Africa, Africans, and their descendants.  This construction of African subjectivity as ignorant, abject, despised, is crucial to the construction of European and European descendants’ subjectivity as superiors.

Another popular trope of the western knowledge production system is the notion that the lands captured by the Europeans between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean is the new world.  The notion of “New World” posits the assumption that the people who lived in the captured lands were ignorant, abject, wild, primitive, heathens.  Like the Africans, they were subjects to be despised, exploited, and abused for the aggrandizement of Europeans and their descendants.

The counter discourse is to question this European derived knowledge production system consistently and insistently, and to emphasize that its status was derived from European hegemony.  But the counter discourse is weakened when its creators aim is to prove to Europeans and their  descendants that their intellect and thoughts are as rich and worthy as theirs.  This quest for validation often leads to cooption and mind capture.

This hegemonically derived knowledge production system is represented as the spirit of the people who created it.  The spirit of the people includes the cultural and intellectual climate, the social atmosphere, and the social life of the people. 

The national spirit of the United States of America perpetuates the principles of white patriarchy, Christian nationalism, and racial capitalism.  These principles are enforced through persuasive and coercive institutions, militarism, and economic institutions on the national and international levels.  This cultural climate of enforcement of white patriarchal supremacy, Christian nationalism, and racial capitalism has made it difficult for elected leaders to address the social problems that have developed- poverty, homelessness, unemployment, psychological breakdown.

The New York City administration’s response to the recent strangulation on the subway is a case in point.  On May1st, 2023 a 30-year-old Black man- Jordan Neely- was strangled to death by a 24-year-old white man-Daniel Penny- on the New York City subway system.  The encounter was captured on video by a passenger.  The city medical examiner ruled Mr. Neely’s death a homicide.  Yet it took weeks and constant protest before Mr. Neely’s executioner could be charged with his murder.  Mayor Adams chose not to call for Mr. Penny’s arrest.  Instead, he sought support for enhanced legal mechanisms to support people like Jordan Neely- homeless, unemployed, psychotic.  A murder occurred.  A video of the murder is available.  The murderer is known. Yet, there is a lethargic response from the city administration.  Mr. Bragg and Mayor Adams deliberate response to the murder of a Black man by a white man only serves to normalize white supremacy.  This is how the mind capture functions.  This is how white supremacy functions.

Mr. Adams and Mr. Bragg may be decent and honorable men.  Their actions in this case, perhaps, may redound positively for them in the next election cycle.  But their actions also serve to reenforce the national cultural narrative that Black people are less than human.  Black people are represented as less than human within the knowledge production system of the European hegemonic white supremacist system.