America: land of the marginalized; home of the brave.
America is a vast “melting pot” of ideals, cultures, religions and people. The Native Americans, living on the continent for millennia, had thrived. Then, beginning in the 15ht century, America was colonized by the British, Spanish and French. They would be the first European people to set foot upon the land. They would not be the last. America, from nearly every corner of the world, people immigrated to America to seek a better life. The road to that was often shoddily paved with biases and obstacles that would make life and being accepted by one’s American neighbors very hard. Whether it was color of skin, religious differences or perceived intellectual difference, cultures, and more specifically, people, clashed for these varied reasons.
The Native Americans were the first people in America. Thriving for centuries, each tribe had its own cultural tradition and identity. Prior to European colonization of America, there were approximately 2 million Native Americans living on the continent. Within this population there were over 600 groups and 200 spoken languages. (Olson & Beal pp 18-19) When the first Europeans set foot on American soil, that all changed. As white settlements began, the sheer numbers of immigrants from Europe began encroaching and even pushing Native Americans from their lands. It is here that the first obstacle towards the end goal of acceptance occurred. Partly because of the darker tones of skin, and partly because Europeans held superior weaponry advantages over the Native Americans, many Europeans saw the Native Americans as little more than savages, thereby justifying any violence towards them. (Olson & Beal p 24)
These first negative stereotypes began a long road to characterizing Native Americans as “less than human” and marginalization based upon this reasoning. The Native Americans at first, tried to coexist peacefully, but in March of 1622, that peace was shattered as a more aggressive Native American leader took control. Attacks on white villages began, and it seemed to many of those victims that the Native Americans were truly living up to their stereotype. Yet, it was the whites that further pushed Native Americans from their homes and hunting grounds. The whites would further marginalize the Native Americans as a “simple” people without language because they didn’t speak English.
These first negative stereotypes began a long road to characterizing Native Americans as “less than human” and marginalization based upon this reasoning. The Native Americans at first, tried to coexist peacefully, but in March of 1622, that peace was shattered as a more aggressive Native American leader took control. Attacks on white villages began, and it seemed to many of those victims that the Native Americans were truly living up to their stereotype. Yet, it was the whites that further pushed Native Americans from their homes and hunting grounds.
During the French and Indian war, more marginalization of Native American occurred as certain tribes were divided by the loyalties to either Britain or France. This choice of loyalty would also be prevalent during the American Revolutionary War, dividing allies and effectively beginning a chain reaction that would lead up to more loss to Native American lands.
After the Revolutionary War, the fledgling United States government would continue their policy of conquer, treaty and take lands from the Native Americans. This would lead to more marginalization as the United States government aged and became more cynical towards their fellow inhabitants of the continent. (http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Sioux.html/History)
It can be argued that one of the largest marginalization obstacles Native Americans faced was that of the U.S. Government itself. With the many treaties that were broken by the whites in both the government and citizen level, as well as the subsequent attempts to “Americanize” the Native Americans by forcing “civilization” upon them by forcing different dress, religion and language upon them.
For the African Americans, life in America began with slavery. Brought from Africa for the specific purpose of a lifetime of servitude tot the white elites, which also began the marginalization of African Americans, for they were perceived as little more than property. For over 200 years freedom of the slaves was a tricky subject, even to the point of causing senators to come to blows in 1856. (Olson & Beal p 204-205) This marginalization would ultimately lead to the American Civil war.
Near the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery and so African American slaves were freed. This, however, did nothing to dissolve the marginalization and instead created new acts of marginalization and discrimination as Southern resentment turned towards the now freed slaves.
African Americans having been thought as less than human, were suddenly identified as such, as well as paid laborers, and in the South, with economic downturn from the war and those former slave owners still in need of workers for the cotton fields, resented the new citizens not only for the conflict but for the new debt created for the workers.
This would lead to new obstacles as Jim Crowe laws and “Separate but equal” stances segregated the blacks from the whites. This led to violence at the hands of radical Christian groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, who attempted to keep white control over politics as well as over economic power and forced a psychology of still being “lesser” among the African American citizens. (http://www.everyculture.com/multi/A-Br/African-Americans.html/significantimmigrationwavesandsettlementpatterns)
For another seventy years, segregation played a large role in American society, creating new ways of marginalizing African Americans and forcing upon them new obstacles on the road to acceptance as Americans. (http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/white-only-1.html)
At the dawn of the Civil Rights movement prior to 1960, several court cases began as African Americans sought to destroy the “separate but equal” stance in the United States, as well as bring attention to the real inequality that came with “separate but equal”. In 1960, the younger generation of African Americans sought to change the system by knowing it and fighting it as well. From the four college students who refused to move from their seats until they were served at the white only counter at Woolworths in North Carolina (http://www.sitinmovement.org/history/sit-in-movement.asp) to the many that followed, these young African Americans fought to destroy the obstacles to true freedom.
As civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X took up the banner of equality, civil rights and black pride, the United States government had to take a hard look at the laws of the past and realize that such racial nationalistic ideals were, and in a sense, had always been obsolete.
Today African Americans still face some obstacles as racial nationalistic views still have not receded entirely, yet these barriers will come down as the newer generations will learn of the mistakes of the past and push to change for the future.
For other immigrants to the United States, they too faced obstacles that in some ways were similar to those faced by the Native Americans and the African Americans. The Irish, for example, faced the obstacle of acceptance because, like the Native and African Americans, they were seen as “not really human”. They were only a little ways higher in standing than slaves. Their marginalization was not based on the “whiteness” of their skin, but rather the perceived notion of “whiteness” of the country they came from. (Olson & Beal pp 40-41)
Many other groups fought obstacles that were based upon the darkness of skin tone, as the Italians faced discrimination from other Italians because of this, the Chinese, Japanese and other Asian immigrants, Puerto Ricans, Hispanics and Haitians all faced the same obstacle. This separated groups from truly identifying with their heritage as rifts formed based on that “whiteness” of skin.
In conclusion, too much of the marginalization amongst the Americans has more been based upon color of skin, to the ideals of “whiteness” and the white racial nationalism and the European ideal for success. As we look to the future, the melting pot that is America will continue to change, and the ideals of racial nationalism will continue to rear up and say hello. Let’s hope the future generations have learned from the past mistakes and rather that judge on color of skin, look for the merit of one’s soul. Perhaps then we can truly overcome the wall that prevents the true answer of what it means to be “American.”
Reflection:
To say that this course has increased my awareness to the difficulties faced by immigrants in America in their quest for acceptance and to be considered “American” is really an understatement. As I have studied history, reading through the long stories that a millennia of wars can bring, through the histories of kings, through the people who create an identity and watching as nationalism, and even racial nationalism is born, I have seen the many stories of people. From European history courses to Native American studies, history isn’t just a list of dates, names and facts, but the story of people. People make up that story, whether or not they are lost in the giant ledger that is history.
In my path of study, I have taken two American history courses, both of which focused on the European, but more specifically, the French and English perspective on America. It would only be after I had taken Native American studies that I would get a more whole picture of that history. It is sad that those who have written history have failed to, until recently, really delve into the Native American perspective.
I have always known that immigrants from all over the world had a terrible time being accepted in America, as cultural biases and racial biases prevailed. From my U.S. History courses, I had learned that I that African Americas fought hard to gain acceptance, and in many ways, are still fighting for that. With the Civil Rights movement, the African Americans would push beyond the marginalization trap, and yet, it still prevails as the psychological scars of societal depictions and treatments of the past still remain.
I did gain valuable insight in this class about those waves of immigrants that were not as “noteworthy” in prior History classes. I learned that Italians, Puerto Ricans and many other ethnicities marginalized their own countrymen as they came to America, largely due to the darkness of the skin or the location they were from within that country.
As I continue my long journey through history, I hope to learn more about the American experience from all the groups that create the giant melting pot that is America.
