Popular Rhetoric Research Articles

Beyond Reverse Racism: A Research Note on How White College Students Construct the Myth of Silencing in the Classroom

ABSTRACTThe popular rhetoric of “reverse racism” suggests that white students are victimized by racism, but it is unclear what contemporary white college students specifically find negative about their experiences in race classrooms. Analyzing interviews and open‐ended survey data from 54 white undergraduates at a predominantly white university in the Northeast, this research note shows that “reverse racism” is not the primary framework through which respondents interpret their negative classroom experiences. Instead, respondents rely on racist tropes about people of color to position themselves as silenced in these settings. We show how respondents (1) describe hypothetical scenarios involving explosive professors and students of color, and (2) view the race classroom as a space for learning “different perspectives,” in order to (3) claim that their whiteness renders them ineligible to participate in class discussions. Amidst political and academic condemnation of “cancel culture” and the perpetuation of myths that left‐wing activists of color unjustly target free speech, white students may incorporate these concerns into their meaning‐making. Although respondents do not explicitly invoke “reverse racism,” we argue that these narratives still reinforce the existing racial structure. These preliminary findings suggest the need for further exploration of white students' complex reactions to race classes in the current sociopolitical context.

Praising pop emotions: media emotions serving social interests

This study focuses on analysing the relationship between the media, emotions and popular culture, with particular emphasis on daytime talk shows on generalist television in Portugal. Considering that the content of these programmes not only reflects but also influences popular culture, we analysed 60 complete episodes, approximately 120 h of audiovisual material. Despite their popular rhetoric, fuelled by highly emotive language, these programmes were also able to dilute specialised content with extreme regularity, from professionals such as doctors, psychologists, lawyers and others, on topics ranging from healthy eating to financial literacy. In addition, the study shows that most of the emotionally exaggerated responses from participants were driven by noble motivations around ideas of equality and social justice, such as combating the exclusion of minorities, as well as rejecting toxic masculinity and domestic violence. Contrary to the historical suspicions associated with these talk shows, this qualitative and exploratory study shows that emotional responses in the context of popular media programmes can sometimes contribute to the dissemination and consumption of relevant information focused on individual well-being and the consolidation of some basic principles of living in society and democracy.

Memetization of the president’s speeches to the nation in South Africa as popular rhetoric elements

The proliferation of political memes in recent years allows us to assume that they are a new tool of political communication and that social networks increase the possibilities for civil society to express opinions and intervene in the debate on matters of public interest. This article aims to examine the memes that have been disseminated on Twitter since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa in the wake of the president’s speeches to the nation to discover whether one can speak of a political rhetoric in memes and their argumentation. To this end, the research uses a qualitative-quantitative approach to classify the taxonomy of memes according to their content, combining the thematic classification of memes and the typology of images in digital discourse to discover the existence of the use of popular political rhetoric. The final sample comprises 351 memes, and the analysis shows that they used humour as a means of escape rather than as an effective way of sending political messages. Thus, the results reflect the existence of a resignification of popular culture that transcends memes as persuasive elements based on the inertia of popular rhetoric in contemporary political communication.

The recognition of same-sex customary marriages under South African customary law

Same-sex couples in South Africa may conclude marriages and enjoy equal rights as their opposite-sex counterparts. A glaring lacuna in South African law is whether same-sex couples may marry in accordance with customary law with legal force and effect. This article uses desktop research to critically examine whether customary law accommodates same-sex customary marriages and if not, whether customary law should be developed to do so. Despite the popular rhetoric that same-sex relations are ‘un-African’, the article argues that there is an established history of same-sex practices in Africa, and recent media reports point to development in customary law to recognise same-sex marriages. But given the differences in customary law across the country, this may be fiercely contested. Arguably, some versions of customary law do not recognise same-sex marriages. In practice, the courts will have to consider whether to develop customary law to accommodate same-sex customary marriages. The rights of individuals to equality and culture must be balanced against broader understandings of culture and the courts’ role in developing customary law in line with constitutional values. Courts must employ a nuanced development of the law that protects the rights of same-sex couples without undermining customary law.

Problematizing “Honour Crimes” within the Canadian Context: A Postcolonial Feminist Analysis of Popular Media and Political Discourses

Honour-based violence has garnered significant attention within Canadian national discourses, especially within popular media and political rhetoric. Frequently conceptualized as a culturally specific form of violence embedded with patriarchal understandings of honour, these crimes have been mobilized within mainstream media to vilify certain ethnic and racial communities, particularly from the Global East. Relying on ethnocentric explanations, honour crimes are imagined as foreign phenomena that have been imported into Canada by immigrant populations who actively resist assimilation and fail to adopt liberal Western values of equality and freedom. This paper seeks to unsettle these very tropes surrounding the “honour crime” label using a postcolonial feminist lens. Drawing on the murder case of Aqsa Parvez, this paper calls into question the discursive strategies used to construct “honour crimes” and the racialized tropes that they perpetuate. Further, this paper examines how this label is mobilized to carry out “political work” and support certain political agendas, which include managing immigrant populations.

Examining the Relationship Between Direct Exposure to Violence and Delinquent Behavior Across Different Immigrant Generations

Contrary to popular rhetoric, studies have shown that the relationship between immigration and crime is null or negative. However, recent studies found that crime rates are high in second-generation immigrants. This study posits that exposure to violence (ETV) is one potential risk factor related to the increase in crime and delinquency among immigrant youth, particularly in second-generation youth. Results show that, at baseline, second-generation youth reported the highest direct ETV. Also, ETV is positively associated with deviant outcomes, especially in second-generation youth, whereas ethnic identity casts a negative effect on delinquency across groups. Study results support that direct ETV is one of the risk factors and contributes to levels of delinquency among immigrant generations.

Metaphoric BotaniesConjectures on the Renaissance Fœtus

Abstract The Renaissance witnessed a proliferation in medical discourse, pedagogical illustration, and popular rhetoric – what I refer to here as “metaphoric botanies” – comparing the human fœtus, or embryo, to a plant. Far from being a mere linguistic inheritance from ancient medicine, such “metaphoric botanies” not only allowed early moderns to conceive of the unobservable development of the human fœtus, but also emphasized the relation of the mother to the unborn child. Much of the “metaphoric botanies” surrounding the fœtus throughout the Renaissance analogize its development to that of a plant “rooting” itself in the mother’s uterus, through which it receives sustenance. Though feminist scholarship has made the important argument that such language has historically been utilized in debates surrounding abortion, these “botanies” might also be placed within a certain representational tradition, through which it might be understood as a meditation on species-being and -continuation in a period fraught with epistemological and metaphysical uncertainty.

القوة الناعمة وكأس العالم 2022 في قطر

A growing body of literature recognizes the significance of soft power in Qatar's foreign policy. There is, however, limited research on the long-term impact that occurs from the over-dependency on the soft power. The popular rhetoric in most literature expresses that Qatar uses its soft power, often in the form of sports diplomacy, to meet its foreign policy objectives. The review paper attempts to identify to what extent the 2022 World Cup can be understood from the soft power perspective, and the role it plays in Qatar's foreign policy formulation and implementation, as well as the significance of soft power in comprehending Qatar's mega investments in the sporting sector. The first section elaborates into sport diplomacy functions and its origins. The second section elaborates on Qatar's involvement with International Sports. The third and arguably the most important section deals with soft power and sports diplomacy. The paper offers an up-to-date review of current studies about Qatar's international strategy for sport, whether for investment and diversification of state revenues or political and policy diplomacy motifs.

Last Words of the Condemned: Christian-Humanist Rhetoric in the American Abolition Debate

Through the interrogation of recent analyses of the last words of people executed in the USA, this article critiques the popular abolitionist rhetoric that interprets last words in terms of evidence of sin and redemption. In reading the execution event in this way, the article suggests, these texts inadvertently celebrate and affirm the act of execution. Drawing on Gil Anidjar’s Blood (2014), the article suggests that this duality is in consonance with the history of modern Christianity as epitomised in the bonding of two events: the Eucharist and the Inquisition.

The impossible woman and sexist realism on NBC’s Parks and Recreation

ABSTRACT This article critically interprets the NBC television program Parks and Recreation, analyzing its main character Leslie Knope as emblematic of an emerging rhetorical figure in public culture: the impossible woman. The impossible woman informs the possibilities for subjectivity and political engagement among audiences drawn to feminist messages as it mediates between the competing demands of feminism and neoliberalism through narrative structures that evoke what I have termed sexist realism, the presumption that, strive as we must to resist it, there is no alternative to patriarchy. I explore how the impossible woman is at once a product of and response to sexist realism as popular feminist rhetoric has made a virtue of feminist striving. The proliferation of the impossible woman in public culture celebrates this feminist virtue even as it cannot imagine collective feminist outcomes.

Adapting or Atrophying? China's Belt and Road after the Covid-19 Pandemic

executive summary: This article analyzes Chinese policy discourse and activities before and after the Covid-19 outbreak and evaluates the prospects of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). main argumentFrom January to June 2020, China experienced the full cycle of Covid-19: outbreak, containment, economic reopening, and return of political life. The country's policy discourse and activities during the cycle show that the BRI strategy maintains a high level of continuity after the pandemic. Specifically, motivations for the initiative today are similar to those at its launch in 2013, and interests developed during its implementation have grown following the Covid-19 outbreak, albeit with different emphases. Overall, Chinese "middle elites" will continue to help stabilize BRI and globalization during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. policy implications • The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified geopolitical and societal tensions between China and other countries. Yet beyond political and popular rhetoric, Chinese policy elites are pragmatic and remain committed to BRI and globalization. They offer a stabilizing force against the potential "deglobalization" wave in a post-pandemic world. • China's motivations and activities behind BRI have continued during the Covid-19 cycle. As the country recovers from the pandemic, it is likely to pursue BRI with more deliberation at home and more opportunities abroad. • Inevitably, post-pandemic globalization will have different priorities. In BRI, plans for some hard infrastructure projects are likely to give way to softer and more socially inclusive areas of cooperation, such as information technology, medicine, education, and the environment. • Going beyond the pandemic, we need to pay attention to discourse and activities by professional and policy communities in China and other countries. The "middle elites" are likely to foretell and shape future trajectories in BRI and globalization.

Chinese financial statecraft in Southeast Asia: an analysis of China’s infrastructure provision in Malaysia

Since 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative has become China’s signature foreign economic policy campaign. While there have been debates on the initiative’s implementation and implications, an emerging consensus suggests that the export of capital-intensive infrastructure is a key driving factor of China’s financial statecraft. For Southeast Asian countries, such Chinese efforts are useful in plugging their domestic infrastructure gaps, not least in the remote parts of their territory. Against this backdrop, this article examines arguably two of the most prominent Chinese infrastructure projects in Malaysia – the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP). It posits three inter-related arguments. Firstly, unlike conventional analyses which commonly treat the Chinese state as a singular, unitary actor, both the central and provincial governments in China’s multi-layer state structure have played important roles and demonstrated different characteristics in Chinese infrastructure overture towards Malaysia. Secondly, one observes contrasting patterns of well-coordinated state-business relations in the ECRL project versus loose, decentralised state-business relations driven largely by Guangxi province and market forces for the MCKIP. Thirdly, the implementation of both the ECRL and the MCKIP has been heavily constrained by the political-institutional environment of Malaysia as the host country, illustrating that Chinese financial statecraft, in the form of infrastructure provision, generates considerably less impact than what popular rhetoric suggests.

Presidential Rhetoric and Power in a Historical Perspective

This article explores some of the developments of rhetorical leadership over the past century, focusing particularly on the modern presidency, commonly understood as beginning withFranklin D. Roosevelt. The first research question is whether Richard Neustadt’s (1960) seminal book Presidential Power is still valid as a thesis of presidential power in light of the concept of the rhetorical presidency, which became a dominant approach to presidential studies in the 1980s. Although the strategy of “going public” is used increasingly in presidential leadership, the conclusion of this article is that Neustadt’s bargaining theory, or the strategy of “going Washington”, is still valid when it comes to the relationship between the president and Congress, provided popular rhetoric is integrated into a bargaining perspective. The second research question is how the State of the Union Addresses have changed during the course of the modern presidency. This includes an analysis of selected State of the Union Addresses between 1934 and 2020. On the basis of some linguistic features and rhetorical techniques (the use of pronouns, the opening address and the acknowledgment of invited guests) they are considered to illustrate the change of presidential rhetoric into what may seem like a permanent campaign.

Spreading Fake News in the Virtual Realm in Bangladesh: Assessment of Impact

Fake news is ‘false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting.’ The upsurge of technological advancement, especially social media, has paved the way for spreading fake news. The virtual realm spurs fake news as per the speed of air. Nowadays, fake news has been one of the social problems in the world along with Bangladesh. Self-seeker groups use fake news as an ‘atomic arsenal’ to disseminate their popular rhetoric with supersonic speed for fulfilling male purposes. Fake news is usually rampant during any crisis, elections, and even in campaigns. The hoaxers and fakers exploit the opportunity of the wavering psychology of the social media users, and fake news becomes ‘viral’ on social media, Facebook. Recently Bangladesh has faced an acute crisis of spreading fake news during the ‘Movement of Nirapod Sarak Chai, ‘National election in December 2018’ and very recent ‘need child’s head for Padma Bridge.’ This study titled “Spreading Fake News in the Virtual Realm in Bangladesh: Assessment of Impact” seeks the reasons for spreading fake news and its’ social impact in Bangladesh.

Dilemma as to Whether Pretrial Detention Risk should be Determined Subjectively by Judges or by Imperfect Algorithms that are Proxies for Race, Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status

Bail Reform in New York State and other states has been labeled the boogey man blamed anecdotally by law enforcement for the trend of gun and youth violence emerging especially during the COVID epidemic. As a refreshing antidote to popular rhetoric, the book Punishing Poverty-How Bail and Pretrial Detention Fuel Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System by authors Christine S. Scott-Hayward & Henry F. Fradella provides a sober analysis of the history, science, workings and possible reform of the bail system, as an insight into improving access to equal justice. The idea that scientific instruments may be culturally biased creates a dilemma as to whether pretrial detention risk should be determined subjectively by judges or by imperfect algorithms that are proxies for race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Christine S. Scott-Hayward & Henry F. Fradella cautiously recommend moving to a risk-based system of pretrial justice because risk assessments seem to be an imperfect rational alternative to the goals of incentivizing court appearances and protecting public safety. One possible solution is that bail reform should refrain from predicting violence or future court appearances, but should focus objectively on the facts. The law cannot subjectively and futilely try to predict future behavior. In this way, the New York reform, which avoids the prognostication of dangerousness is fair and distinctive. Since bail and pre-trial detention is just one of many unequally administered functions of the criminal justice system, the analysis in this book opens the door for considering wholesale improvements across the system.

From Anti-Oedipus to Anti-Hype: A Critique of Hyperstition

The article describes the current state of left-wing post-Deleuzian philosophy, which is going through a period of obsession with the production of fictions. The authors argue that science fiction is today often mobilized as a tool for imagining a future that is incommensurable with the current late capitalist order. However, when trying to imagine a post-capitalist future, contemporary left-wing philosophers tend to look to the past for inspiration, a maneuver which only exacerbates the “exhaustion of the future,” that has retrofuturism as its cultural correlate. Based on this, the authors suggest that philosophical instrumentalization of science fiction may result in a distinct form of intellectual escapism. The article argues that in this context, special attention should be paid to the concept of hyperstition, which has arisen under the influence of science fiction narratives and is embedded in current popular rhetoric about hacking the future. The authors point out that the way hyperstition functions has a resemblance to marketing mechanisms, and they suggest that it corresponds to what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari called an unconscious representation or fake image. The article subjects hyperstition to a critical analysis in which the authors show that the genealogy of hyperstition as a practice of programming reality through fictions stems from the ideas of William S. Burroughs. Burroughs set out to develop new ways of linguistic infection and modeling human behavior by means of his cutup technique. This approach blurs the distinction between reality and fiction. Some members of the CCRU transplanted Burroughs’ ideas to the theoretical soil that Deleuze and Guattari had tilled. Hyperstition has been reborn in the CCRU’s legacy project of left-wing accelerationism, which redirects the idea of self-fulfilling fiction toward developing a non-deterministic concept of progress. Pointing to the ineffectiveness of hyperstition as a tool for socio-political change, the authors propose abandoning Anti-Oedipus in favor of Anti-Hype.

Three scenarios for the future of work

AbstractAfter presenting a historical overview of the concept of work and the different meanings that it has acquired over the centuries, the author analyses the value it holds for Europeans, and the impact on work and employment of the popular rhetoric about a technological revolution and its “inevitable” consequences. She then considers the future of work in the light of three scenarios: a “dismantling of labour law”, a “technological revolution” (where automation brings an end to employment), and an “environmental transition”. She argues that the latter is compatible with the imperative to take action on climate change and the expectations placed in work and employment.

Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice. By Annie Bunting and Joel Quirk (Eds.). Toronto and Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017

<i>Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice</i>. By Annie Bunting and Joel Quirk (Eds.). Toronto and Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017

Real Insider Trading

Government officials and academics offer starkly different portraits of insider trading enforcement. In popular rhetoric, insider trading cases are about leveling the playing field between elite market participants and ordinary investors. Academic critiques vary. Some depict an untethered insider trading doctrine that enforcers use to expand their power and enhance their discretion. Others see enforcers beset with agency cost problems who bring predominantly simple, easily resolved cases to create the veneer of vigorous enforcement. Unfortunately, this debate has, so far, been based mostly on anecdote and conjecture rather than empirical evidence. This article addresses that gap by collecting extensive data on 465 individual defendants in civil, criminal, and administrative actions to assess how enforcers actually operationalize insider trading doctrine. The cases enforcement authorities bring are shaped by a complex and cross-cutting set of institutional and individual incentives, cognitive biases, legal requirements, the history of failed enforcement efforts, and the way in which the agency and the self-regulatory organizations deploy their investigatory resources. SEC enforcement is dominated by small stakes, opportunistic trading by mid-level employees and their friends and family, most often involving M&A transactions. Those cases settle quickly, half within 30 days of filing. Criminal enforcement is generally reserved for more serious cases, measured by, among other things, the type of defendant, the size of the insider trading network, and the profits earned. In both settings, there is little evidence that enforcers are systematically stretching the boundaries of insider trading doctrine, suggesting that there is little need for more precise statutory language to curb enforcement overreach.

Holiday Gifting at a Children’s Hospital: Sacred Ritual, Sacred Space

Every Christmas season children’s hospitals in the United States are flooded with gift donations. Businesses, service organizations, and the public deliver carloads of new toys, puzzles, games, books, electronics, sports equipment, art supplies, cosmetics, blankets, and clothing for sick children. The practice is so common and widespread that donors rarely ask whether they may donate, what types of donations are welcome, and when and where they should deliver their donations. Based on ethnographic observations of holiday gifting at University Children’s Hospital, a nationally ranked pediatric hospital on the West Coast, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the implicit cultural beliefs that guide holiday gifting practices. Eschewing the popular rhetoric of American hyper-consumption and hedonism, I use a Durkheimian framework to argue that holiday gifting in children’s hospital is a sacred ritual. The data presented describe the wide-ranging variety of donors—from Boy Scouts to nightclub strippers—who journey to the hospital bearing gifts. Drawing on sacred conceptualizations of childhood and gifting in American culture, I argue that children’s hospitals are more than medico-scientific institutions. They represent sacred unifying spaces and the heart of their local communities where individuals and organizations come to privately and publicly reaffirm their moral commitments to society through holiday gifting.