Making Hegemony and Dominance not mutually exclusive

Making Hegemony and Dominance not mutually exclusive

             

            The fact that hegemony and dominance are not mutually exclusive is a concept that I believe can only be fully understood when colonization is considered.  When researching the definition of hegemony the term dominance is often used within the definition and in colloquial speech they quite often used interchangeable. This truth points to the ever-impressive power of language as a tool of oppression, which is often only combated in intellectual settings. That is why it is so influential that as Mignolo points out “with the Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Andean movements, knowledge is increasingly the key site of struggle.” (Mignolo, 115) Those fighting must use the tools of language to combat misunderstandings and re-evaluate our definitions of words whose meaning has the power to misconstrue the freedom and governance of a nation. “The awareness, however, that what is dominant is not necessarily hegemonic is awakening; and hegemony like the stock market, is becoming diversified.” So much of how colonization is able to survive is based off of misplaced understandings of hegemonic control.  Numbers twisted and spun in order to calculate an understanding of “the majority group” when the definitions that divide are being constructed by those in the dominant position of control.  Until we fully separate hegemony and dominance, colonization will continue to be the narrative of governance in most of the world.