In this article, I reflect on Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu’s classic research on the “burden of ‘acting White’ ” to develop a long overdue dialogue between Africana studies and critical white studies. It highlights the dialectical nature of Fordham and Ogbu’s philosophy of race and critical race theory by locating the origins of the “burden of ‘acting White’ ” in the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, ...

A debate is raging in workplaces, schools, universities, and political and legal arenas: Is it better to ignore or acknowledge group differences? Multiculturalism, a pluralistic ideology, stresses recognizing and celebrating group differences, whereas color blindness, an assimilationist ideology, stresses ignoring or minimizing group differences. Both ideologies arguably advocate for equality, ...

Charting out the history of the study of African responses to imperialism, crises and underdevelopment in Africa, African Socialism as an Ideology for development was found course social and political) crises. The ideology, which was muted and practiced some decades ago and currently being canvassed through other guises by some African leaders as a panacea for myriads of African retested for it...

While standard political economy theories suggest a moderating effect of democratization on income inequality, empirical literature has failed to uncover any such robust relationship. Here we take yet another look at this issue arguing first, that prevailing ideology may be an important determinant of inequality and, second, that the democratization effect “works through” ideology. In societies...

In 1996 I published On Voluntary Servitude: False Consciousness and the Theory of Ideology, a book on which I had been working for a number of years. The theory of ideology, as I understood it, seemed to me to be – or, at least, to have been until recently – the dominant response to what is a puzzling but frequently observed feature of political life: namely, that those who are maltreated – opp...

Background It has been argued that human ancestors evolved greater sensitivity to certain traits signal dominance in poten-tial leaders. From this perspective, modern voters still favor physical characteristics during political elections. Indeed, previous studies have shown prefer dominant candidates, especially when primed with wartime scenarios, and conservative being more likely choose a lea...

Does popular ideology affect public policies enacted in a country? The baseline argument links popular ideology input to policy output. Either a population more often elects a party with its favored ideology into office, which then implements policies in line with popular ideology. Alternatively, all parties pursue policies more in line with popular ideology. Under the first view, popular ideol...

This article explores the concept of reverse discourse, as suggested by Foucault and Butler. It is argued that Butler's subject formation overly determinist, Foucault's discourse. Following Scott's critique, it there a strong weak conceptualisation dominant ideology. Discourses are in competition for authority, where ideology discourse more powerful decision-makers, while subaltern ideologies p...