Is America a racist country?
Decades ago, I read a column by Andrew Young, the former Atlanta Mayor and UN representative, in which he wrote that you should never trust anyone who says they aren’t racist. You should say I’m working on my racism.
Recently, the former South Carolina governor and current GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley omitted to mention that slavery was a cause of the Civil War (it was *the* cause–see the Cornerstone Document, as just one exhibit). Now, Haley says this: “We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country.”
As a country, the United States was conceived in chattel slavery. That’s encoded in the Constitution. Those slaves weren’t White, they were Black, and the reason for their enslavement was racist, full stop.
Never mind that the indigenous people of the continent were ethnically cleansed for racist reasons.
The United States has, for most of its history, been a racist country. Not just a nation of racists, but a nation with racist policies. Shame on Nikki Haley for denying that history. She needs to work harder on her racism.
Recently, the former South Carolina governor and current GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley omitted to mention that slavery was a cause of the Civil War (it was *the* cause–see the Cornerstone Document, as just one exhibit). Now, Haley says this: “We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country.”
As a country, the United States was conceived in chattel slavery. That’s encoded in the Constitution. Those slaves weren’t White, they were Black, and the reason for their enslavement was racist, full stop.
Never mind that the indigenous people of the continent were ethnically cleansed for racist reasons.
The United States has, for most of its history, been a racist country. Not just a nation of racists, but a nation with racist policies. Shame on Nikki Haley for denying that history. She needs to work harder on her racism.
Say what?
As a country, the United States was conceived in chattel slavery.
The ‘1619 Project’ pointed out that the first African slaves arrived here when European settlement of what was to become the USA was getting underway. This of course is what eventually became the land where everyone is ‘created equal’. Since 1776 anyway, that has been what America is all about. In the words of our Southern forefathers even.
You might say instead that the United States was conceived in monumental hypocrisy.
I prefer to believe we are still working on creating a More Perfect Union.
@Fred,
I assume you’re being sarcastic.
Why would you assume that.
Virginia was established by Royalists from England. (Massachusetts – which originally included most of New England – by Puritans from England. They didn’t get along well.) There was no particular need for slave ownership at the very beginning, but soon ‘entitlement’ (or laziness) set in, and slave-owning followed. But that is not to say that America was conceived in chattel slavery. Having said that, I believe the first of my ancestors to arrive here (I understand) was indentured to his elderly aunt, and they arrived early on in the settlement of Pennsylvania. Not the same as chattel, which is ownership.
“The word “slave” does not appear in the Constitution. The framers consciously avoided the word, recognizing that it would sully the document. Nevertheless, slavery received important protections in the Constitution. The notorious three-fifths clause—which counted three-fifths of a state’s slave population in apportioning representation—gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. Thomas Jefferson would have lost the election of 1800 if not for the Three-fifths Compromise. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. A fugitive slave clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The Constitution gave the federal government the power to put down domestic rebellions, including slave insurrections.”
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-constitution-and-slavery
The Constitution is a document with many, many compromises.
Some of which, in hindsight, were utterly stupid.
But it was better than the Articles of Confederation, which was worse. And that was its purpose.
The basis for the establishment of this country, it seems to me, is the Declaration.
Some have said, to some extent the Constitution was designed to back away from some of the expectations raised by the Declaration of Independence.
@Fred,
The Declaration is a manifesto, not a governing document. It was propaganda.
And the states of the North agreed to the three-fifths balderdash because otherwise there would be no ratification of the Constitution.
I am well aware of the sentiment/insistence that the is a manifesto.
Although I would never use such a word to describe it.
I am well aware of the sentiment/insistence that the Declaration of Independence is a manifesto.
All the more so because the entity now known as the USA did not exist at the time. Nonetheless, it is a founding document.
@Fred,
Whether or not *you* would use the word, it nevertheless fulfills the definition of a manifesto. It is certainly not a legal document, nor was it approved by the majority of colonists.
America was an anglo saxon protestant country run by a restrained monarchy in the beginning.
Revolution mainly removed the monarch.
Racism is the evil on Africans.
Nativism is the evil on the ‘differents’, including Papists and non anglo saxons.
US is a nativist country, racism a subset.
Where are the Native Americans in Nativist politics?
Nativism (politics) – Wikipedia
@Fred,
Exactly. Native Americans were nowhere considered as co-equal with whites in the places that became the United States. Why? Racism.
If one was being truly honest, the US is probably one of the least rascist countries on the planet. We all have biases even towards people who look like us. In the end I believe the vast majority of Americans judge others on merit and character. To say otherwise is just sewing discord for political reasons. White supremacy is not the greatest threat to our democracy. Politicians who use race to divide us to gain votes are our greatest threat.
@Mushock,
Being truly honest, the US is a racist country and always has been. Whether it is more or less racist than other countries on the planet, I’ll leave to others to titrate quantitatively. To deny the racist history of this country is just sowing discord for political reasons. White supremacy is a major threat to our democracy and politicians who use race to divide us to gain votes are our greatest threat.
The world came to be a small planet only in the past 500 years or so.
Or even less, really. Perhaps the past 100.
You might insist that it’s only natural that each race regards all others as sub-human, and worthy of eradication so that they can prevail. I doubt that many find this conscionable.
We’re made great progress in getting past this, but an awful history is still with us.
I lived through the race riots in the 60’s. I watched KKK marches on TV as a child. Then in 2008 I cried the night Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in Chicago (BTW, I am white). We are not the same country we were 60 years ago. But if we keep ripping off the racism band-aid with lies of white supremacy, we just might find ourself back there. If anything, there is a war on whites, white men in particular. Case in point: Daniel Penny vs Jordan Williams in NYC. Please explain why Ex-marine Penny is facing 2nd degree murder and mounting legal fees while Williams will be using his GoFund me to fund his college tuition?
@Mushock,
“If anything, there is a war on whites, white men in particular.”
LOL! There is no war on whites, let alone white men. I’m a white male. I personally know hundreds of white men. Neither I nor any of them are victims of a war against our race or gender. That’s just white supremacist lies. Shame on you!
“Case in point: Daniel Penny vs Jordan Williams in NYC. Please explain why Ex-marine Penny is facing 2nd degree murder and mounting legal fees while Williams will be using his GoFund me to fund his college tuition?”
So a case of possible injustice is a “war” in your lexicon? This appears to be a new and unfamiliar use of the word “war.” What’s happening in Ukraine is a war. What’s happening in Gaza is a war. I don’t know anything about Penny v Williams, but I know for sure that it ain’t a war.
One could posit that having recently lost their right to fiefdom, 17th century Europeans recreated it abroad using slaves from Africa.
@Ken,
One could, but one would be left with the puzzle of why it was OK for people with black skin, but not people with white skin, even though the latter were closer to hand in the American colonies. Why not, for example, the Irish?
Albion’s Seed is a two volume study of 4 migrations from Great Britain to the original colonies.
Amazon.com: Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history) (VOLUME I): 9780195069051: Fischer, David Hackett: Books
I read at least the first volume, and passed it on to family.
One of the ‘folkways’ were the scions of aristocracy displaced by Cromwell in that English civil war. They did enjoy ‘superior to inferior’ relations to lower class persons, and set that up in Virginia.
I found it informative and well written.
@paddy,
I read Albion’s Seed years ago at my father’s recommendation. You are right, it is well-written and informative.
The history of 17th century England is horrific. What’s interesting to me is that the US is descended from separate parts of it. And we do not fully appreciate this, or realize it. New England settlers came from anti-royalist populations, The South from pro-royalists.
England actually reformed itslef as a Commonwealth, which lasted only a few years, and ever since, this has been regarded over there as somehow loathsome.