Mechanisms of Imperialisms - Shannon M

This weeks readings analyze issues of feminism through its links to how racism, nationalism, and imperialism plays out in war, especially as waged by the US.  A couple of points that I thought were particularly interesting and would like to further discuss here and in class were the analysis on how issues feminism, gender, race, culture, nationalism, etc are invoked as mechanisms of imperialism (Mohanty) and allegiances toward a performance of nationalism as a mechanism for creating new racisms (Feldman).

Mohanty discusses how American ideals of feminism were utilized in the Iraq war as a way to market the nobility of the cause for the general US public.  The US postured that Iraq was uncivilized and abused their women as was evidenced by the ways women "are forced" to dress, the lack of Western rights conferred to them, and a plethora of other examples that further expressed their deviance from western ideals and cultural values.  Issues of feminism were thus leveraged to establish examples of pervasive injustices in the country as justification for waging war as, if nothing else, the western saviors of these women-as-innocent-victims of their oppressive state.  As we discussed last week, issues of sexuality and oppressive practices in other countries are also strategically leveraged depending on how the US decides in necessary to control public investment in imperialist power and control. 

This leads into Feldman's commentary on the performance ideals of US nationalist ideals functioning as a mechanism for public control.  One of the cases that Feldman exhibits is how the Jewish people, one of the most persecuted groups in history, became "white" and essentially moved up in class after world war two.  This had multiple imperialist purposes and effects including invalidating much of middle eastern culture and peoples.  American nationalism is regularly shaped by current military endeavors which projects an expectation that Americans publicly endorse the imperialist ideals that perpetuate the cycles of power that America has over foreign bodies as well as domestic. 

What I find interesting is how easily issues of feminism, sexuality, race, culture, religion, etc that have been in existence for any number of long years without the American public's knowledge or interest can be flipped so quickly and couched as a big enough threat as to justify war.  Conversely, issues that might have drawn disdain (Jews experiencing anti-Semitism) are flipped to become an American ideal of nationalism (Jews as equal players in society and whose nation is deserving of military protection). 

Question:
In our own research projects, how can we incorporate an exploration of the mechanisms of imperialist powers effecting the experience of the people, groups, etc within which we conduct research?
Should the incorporation of the experience of imperialism be regarded as equally essential and expected in the common research assemblage as race, class, and gender currently are?