As Yehuda Berg said, “words have energy and power with the ability to help…[and] to harm.” Expanding upon his reflection to examine varying social perspectives on American colonial and imperial contexts, one may discern that explorers, politicians and landowners of European descent literally and figuratively communicated white words and ideas to persuade Native Americans and black slaves, in mutually intelligible terms, of white customs. In so immediately communicating their desires, white officials sought to achieve material and martial manifest destinies over time. Accordingly, many Americans of color responded to this ideologically-biased communication from whites by re-enacting white behaviors to satisfy whites and thereby reduce white desecration of non-white lifestyles and living …show more content…
Moreover, white officials presiding over negotiations with native chiefs acknowledged native belief systems to get chiefs to cooperate with colonial and imperial goals. Humoring white interrogation, most Native American translators superficially mimicked white behaviors and acquiesced to white practices to satisfy their clients. More deeply, though, native translators pretended to internalize the double-edged concept of so-called noble savagery to covertly sustain their indigenous practices of land tenure and diverse gender and sexuality identities. On the so-called noble edge of this concept, certain indigenous individuals such as Sacagawea and John Sassamon became translators for European and white officials while conforming to behaviors that many officials found noble, such as speaking English and professing Christian faith, to rise in socio-political status with
(7 There once was an Italian man by the name of Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed the seas and explored South America. And later named America after himself.
She examines some similarities in today’s “white culture” and the historical attitude of the exploring Europeans. The Europeans, when inhabiting North America, “just moved in and said they had God on their side and the Indians weren’t much anyway but a few of them could work for them sometimes if they behaved themselves, and the rest were lined up for disposal” (377). The Europeans believed themselves superior to the Indians; any and all action – fair and unfair alike – taken against the Indians was justifiable because it helped the Europeans. Grover argues that this irresponsible approach is the basis of the white culture. White culture is simply American culture taken and modified as seen fit by white people.
In the informative article "The Great White Father Myth," the author Stan Steiner discusses the stereotypical view that the white man has created of himself as the hero, conqueror, and savior. He labels this view as "The Great White Father Myth," and begins by talking about the silent role the Indians have taken in the face of their Great White Father. Steiner supports his view of the white man's superiority as being nothing more than a myth, by discussing the crimes the white man committed against the Indians were silenced. The Indian Wars and the White man's desire to civilize the Indians were illustrations of the myth that whites were superior. Although the article contains a one-sided view of the events between the Europeans and the Indians, the fact that the white man is hypocritical in the view of himself as the Great White Father comes through very accurately and strongly.
Basso, Keith. 1979. Portraits of “The Whiteman:” Linguistic play and cultural symbols among the Western Apache. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. First half.
What is ironic about Parrillo’s blaming of White-Europeans for the manner in which Native Americans are presented is that most of his evidence comes from these white Europeans who were simply observing the Native Americans, and what’s more is that not all of the views of the natives were negative showing that not all white Europeans viewed the natives the same way. For instance, Lewis and Clark illustrated the differences in phonetics among Native American Language, and these two were white men. Furthermore, John White’s 16th century watercolor of an Algonquian village further portrayed the multiculturism present among Native Americans and he too was a white
Chapter 3 “Recall and Reflect” Question 4: What was the intellectual culture of colonial America, as expressed in literature, philosophy, science, education, and law?
This book was written in the “age of Obama,” as Tim Wise calls it, and it seems to be even more necessary today, in the current “age of Trump.” Multiracial relations are strained and people have become very divided. Interestingly, when Wise pleads for white people to change the narrative and embrace the many different traditions and cultures that built our society he states, “We can continue to hold on to a fictional, nostalgic past, longing for a return to it” (Wise, 159). This is relevant to the current political climate that brought about the election of President Trump with the slogan “Make America Great Again.” Tim Wise encourages white people to put aside their fear and accept the change in multiracial relationships and educate ourselves to become better, to try harder, and to fight for equality with the power that we so unjustly
The first settlers in the United States are Native Americans. Fighting for hierarchy and they once roamed nomadically, searching for peace and sanity. Seeking equality from the white m...
How did the development of European colonies in the Americas alter the natural environment? (The Earth and Its Peoples, 474)
In America, the white purity race became the wealthiest and prominent group. Whiteness proved to grow in the society through cultural ideas, public authority, and cultural norms. Leaving minorities not able to partake fully in the culture. Recently scholars have begun looking into the cultural formations of white racial identity under the framework of whiteness studies (Zack, 2006).
Settler colonialism is different from colonialism. Colonialism is to control or conquer another country for natural resources, labors, and military powers; however, settler colonialism is to conquer, but also it is to banish all indigenous people and settle into the country. And, settlers insist that they are the indigenous people. The United States of America is the settler colonialism country. The stereotypes about race, class, or gender were created because of the formation of settler colonialism in the past. These social categories of race, class, and gender are essential to the establishment of the United States. Moreover, the past settler colonialism formation in America still affects its political and economic systems.
The New England colonies developed a close-knit homogeneous society and a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce. They developed this by creating a group called the New England Confederation. This focused on the protection of the people in the colony in the event of enemies trying to attack them. On page 49, it says “The primary purpose of the confederation was defense against foes or potential foes, notably the Indians, the French, and the Dutch.” They created this as a safety net for the New England colonies. Every part of the New England colonies had two votes, it didn’t matter on the size of the colonies. The ran it as their own because the king of the time didn’t care much for the colonies.
The Native Americans were the earliest and only settlers in the North American continents for more than thousands of years. Like their European counterparts, the English colonists justified the taking of their territories was because the natives were not entitled to the land because they lacked a work ethic in which shows that the colonists did not understand the Native Americans system of work and ownership of property. They believed the “Indians seemed to lack everything the English identified as civilized” (Takaki, Pg. 33). Because the settlers were living far away from civilizations, to ensure that they were civilized people, the settlers had negative images of the Native Americans so that they would not be influenced and live like the how the natives do, ensuring that these groups are savages who are uncivilized. Many began to believe this was God’s plans for them to civilize the country in which many would push westward and drive the Indians out to promote civilization and progress. While the United States was still in its early stages of development,
To the south of New England were the middle colonies. There the soil was fertile, and the weather more acclimated to farming (Sarcelle, 1965). Rivers flowed west toward the frontier, enabling transportation. The middle colonies, as opposed to the relatively Puritan dominated New England, were very diverse in people. A mixture of Dutch, German, Swedes, English and other smaller groups were present in middle colonial cities such as New York (Higginbotham, 1996).
In 1608, a group of Christian separatists from the Church of England fled to the Netherlands and then to the "New World" in search of the freedom to practice their fundamentalist form of Christianity (dubbed Puritanism). The group of people known as the Native Americans (or American Indians) are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Northern and Southern American continents who are believed to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia around 30,000 years ago. When these two societies collided, years of enforced ideology, oppression and guerrilla warfare were begun. The great barriers of religion, ethics and world-views are the three largest factors which lead to the culture clash between the Puritans and the Native Americans.