"It is impossible to be an American and not racialize how you feel" (Cornell West). This is a strong statement put towards the United States because he obviously acknowledges that people in the United States are not treated equal. The thing is everyone is that everyone is the same because we are all human beings. The only difference is the thoughts that we believe and what the culture that you are surrounded by. The British and the Indians were completely different almost as if they were living on different sides of the world. Racialization is something that the British did when first seeing the Indians. Racialization is to categorize or differentiate on the basis of race or culture. By racialization the British identified the Indians as savages. According to dictionary.com a savage is an uncivilized human being, a fierce brutal or cruel person, and a member of a preliterate society. To the British this is exactly what they seen from the Indians. Indians were naked hunter-gathers with little farming and extremely uncivilized. The British were all about colonizing and setting up agriculturally and making trade routes back the home country. The British’s view of the Native Americans was that they were torture loving savages, unorganized, and argumentative. The British did not care if the Indians were all killed or migrated far away because they did not want to deal with these uncivilized people. On page 33 of our textbook A Different Mirror states that “Indians seemed to lack everything the English identified as civilized – Christianity, cities, letters, and clothing. Unlike the English, Indians were allegedly driven by their passions, especially the sexuality.” This line really shows that the English and the Indians are very different. To me the term savage is really a harsh word to put towards the Indians because I believe in all honesty that the Indians were nice caring people but the British were to stubborn in their own goals as a colony to care about associating with the Indians. Not every country that moved to the Americas thought that the Indians were savage like the French for example. The French thought that they could work together with the Indians and wanted to learn more about their customs. I believe another difference is that the British ran in to a different tribe that was more hostile than the Indians the French met. The British could not deal with the difference between them and the Indians which resulted in many wars and lots of blood. People died all over the America to the point where not many Indians live today.
So back to my first line of this blog. “It is impossible to be an American and not racialize how you feel.” This was very true then and appears to be very true now. There are examples all around us like what does a farmer look like, a white male that does not care what he looks like. Or a chink which is a person that looks Asian. Or a gangster which is someone who wears baggy pants and has their pants off their ass. We do not need to classify people because everyone should be treated the same and looks should not matter but they are judged by everyone everyday.
You stated: "The British and Indians were completely different". I am going to have to disagree with you on this. I think the British saw how much alike they were and that is why they decided they had to get rid of them. They did not want to reconsider everything they always believed to be true, that they were superior and their way was the only correct way. When the initial group of British landed and ran out of supplies it was the Native Americans who came in and saved them. But instead of embracing them as friends they turned on them. This leads me to my other thought you also stated, "It is impossible to be an American and not racialize how you feel." I agree, even when I don't mean to I have been known to judge someone by the way they speak or dress. I usually give myself a mental slap though and try and get to know them instead of making assumptions. Luckily having over the last 7 years worked with graduate students from all over the world I have started to not notice the color of their skin and have had the opportunity to learn much about different cultures.
ReplyDeleteThe quote seems very true, but I would say that it extends beyond America and to all human beings. We judge people and situations by the information we receive on them, so race and appearance shape our judgments on people as they are some of the first pieces of information we receive about a person when we come in contact with them, usually leading us to false-judgments about the persons character and individuality.
ReplyDeleteProfound statement Leslie, that the British saw other humans who maintained their survival by a means so different from the truths that be British embraced so dearly through society, expression, politics, and religion, that they were awestruck. Confused and desperate to reaffirm their beliefs as dominate they lashed out against the natives and began their genocide.