Scapegoating

This week in class our articles related to the idea of scapegoating and creating an abject other. In Goad's, Redneck Manifesto, he discusses how liberal whites use the idea of rednecks to deemphasize the role they have played in marganalizing minority groups. They make the redneck to be a symbol of people who are lazy and racist. This pits lower-class minorities against each other and gives liberal whites an "out" for the role they have played in disparaging minority groups. Shur also discusses scapegoating but he frames it as "inferiorizing". Though the tactics are the same; identifying them as the other, labeling them as a problem, and claiming they are all alike.
This idea ties to an article the LWV posted to their Facebook page. The ais in the NY Times and discusses ALEC, the American Legislation Exchange Council. ALEC is a private organization funded mostly by right-wing big business corporations, such as oil and gas. They draft bills and legislation that favors their contributors and hand them off to legislators to sponsor. While the LWV does not come out and use ALEC as a scapegoat, there is a general feeling that big business is to blame for public problems. For example they say they have "destructive actions" and the "pervasive influence of corporate money." The LWV has to walk a fine line of nonpartisanship, so it is difficult for them to come out blatantly against an organization that is predominently Republican. Also, because they cite an article not actually written by their member, I think it gives them more leeway to express partisan ideas. You definitely get the feeling that they are calling all large corporate donations a 'problem.'