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American rhetoric about September 11 both denies
and reinscribes class divisions.
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The victims were in airplanes, or
in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal
workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. (George W. Bush 9-11-02) |
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Although George W. Bush lists "secretaries" before
"businessmen and women" and places them in a parallel structure, the social
taxonomy that provides his rhetorical context makes clear that these are
mutually exclusive groups.
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. . . and tomorrow the good people
of America go back to their shops, their fields, American factories, and
go back to work. (George W. Bush 9-16-02) |
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Although the victims were associated with transnational
post-industrial capitalism, President Bush draws on images of an earlier
economic era by calling Americans back to "shops," "fields," and "factories.".
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