Racism Issue In Institutional Racism Essay Research

Racism: Issue In Institutional Racism Essay, Research Paper

Racism: Issue In Institutional Racism

The history of the United States is one of duality. In the words of the

Declaration of Independence, our nation was founded on the principles of

equality in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, long before the

founders of the newly declared state met in Philadelphia to espouse the virtues

of self-determination and freedom that would dubiously provide a basis for a

secessionary war, those same virtues were trampled upon and swept away with

little regard. Beneath the shining beacon of freedom that signaled the

formation of the United States of America was a shadow of deception and

duplicity that was essential in creating the state. The HSS 280 class lexicon

defines duality as .a social system that results from a worldview which accepts

inherent contradictions as reasonable because this is to the believer’s benefit..

The early years of what would become the United States was characterized by a

system of duality that subjugated and exterminated peoples for the benefit of

the oppressors. This pattern of duality, interwoven into our culture, has

created an dangerously racialized society. From the first moment a colonist

landed on these shores, truths that were .self-evident. were contingent on

subjective .interpretation.. This discretionary application of rights and

freedoms is the foundation upon which our racially stratified system operates on.

English colonists, Africans, and Native Americans comprised the early

clash of three peoples. Essentially economic interests, and namely capitalism,

provided the impetus for the relationships that developed between the English

colonists, the Africans, and the Native Americans. The colonialization of North

American by the British was essentially an economic crusade. The emergence of

capitalism and the rise of trade throughout the 16th century provided the

British with a blueprint to expand its economic and political sphere. The

Americas provided the British with extensive natural resources, resources that

the agrarian-unfriendly British isles could not supply for its growing empire.

When Britons arrived in North America, the indigenous population posed

an economic dilemma to the colonists. The Native Americans were settled on the

land that the British colonists needed to expand their economic capacity. To

provide a justificatory framework for the expulsion of Native Americans off

their land, the English colonists created a ideology that suited their current

needs.

The attitude of Anglos toward the Native Americans began as one of

ambivalence and reliance. When the English first arrived in North America, they

needed the Indians to survive the unfamiliar land and harsh weather. Once the

English became acclimated to their surroundings and realized that the Indians

were living on valuable land, it was only a matter of time before guns and

shackles replaced treaties and handshakes.

In the name of Christianity and capitalism, the English colonists

quickly turned their backs on the short lived missionary zeal that characterized

the early colonial period. Now, the .savage Indians. were viewed as unable to

save themselves and extermination would be a worthy enterprise in the sight of

the Lord. The idea that one possesses a God-given right to mistreat others runs

through much of Western culture and became especially acute in North America

after the emergence of capitalism.

For example, in New England many settlers rejoiced at the extraordinary

death brought upon the Native American population by the introduction of

epidemic diseases. It was viewed as a way of .thinning out. the population. In

the world of the New Jerusalem, where a city was to be build upon a hill, such

trite concerns were of little consequence for those with divine providence.

Duality, and its means of placing the truth and its allied freedoms in

the hands of the powerful, furnishes the .chosen ones. with wide latitude to

create theoretical arguments that justify and perpetuate systemic arrangements

of inequality. John Winthrop outlined his reasoning for the British right to

North American land in terms of natural rights versus civil rights. Natural

rights were those that men enjoyed in a state of nature (i.e. Native Americans).

When some men began to parcel land and use tilled farming, they acquired civil

rights (English colonists). Inevitably, civil rights took precedence over

natural rights. This method of thinking enabled privilege to the English and

provided a justification for the institutional and systemic extermination of the

indigenous people (Growth 83).

Before addressing the subjugation of African-Americans by the English, I

think it is important that I make an important theoretical point in my argument.

All political systems are ratio

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