You Say You Want a Revolution?

The Revolution was a necessary change for America that allowed merchants to sell their goods without being highly taxed, and by earning their independence, the colonists achieved a sense of national unity and identity. Without independence, establishing this national foundation would have been nearly impossible due to the constant reminders of British Imperialism.  However, it is important to keep in mind that just because the rich white population gained something out of the Revolution, doesn’t mean that it was a good change for the other 97% of the colonial population.  The Revolution was simply another digressive method in which to solidify the inferiority of minorities including poor whites, women, slaves, and Indians.  

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in our nation’s history. What many people fail to realize, however, is that the rights appointed to American citizens were only addressing the rich whites.  Addressing the statement that “All men are created equal....with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Samuel Johnson, a famous English writer, asked in reply, “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?”   Minorities were quick to realize the implications in the Declaration and whom it truly intended to liberate.  Norman Livergood has connected these careful exclusions to the roots of what he called the Second Revolution, or the “Revolt against wealthy American merchants and financiers by the working class people of America.”   At the time, the Declaration may have been one of the most controversial documents between social classes in our nation’s history, regardless of the fact that it is also one of the most revered documents in our nation’s history.  

The Revolution allowed the colonists to start from the ground up, developing things like a new system of economics, as well as an entirely new government.   The catch to these new systems, however, was that in order to have any say in the political and governmental decisions, one had to own a certain amount of land and/or slaves in order to occupy a certain rank, and only when that ranking was secured could that person have any say in an important topic concerning the colonies.  According to Livergood, these qualifications only allowed 10% of all of Philadelphia to vote.   Let it be made clear that women specifically were never even considered eligible to vote. The Declaration and Constitution very clearly stated and isolated the beneficiaries to “man” or “men,” being careful not to even mention or include women.  In this sense, the colonies were rigged in considerable favor of the rich white male.  

Independence from Britain meant that the colonies gained a lot of power.  Naturally, the upper class took it upon themselves to take full advantage of that new power.  As soon as the Constitution was written, several new laws and acts were passed, such as the Whiskey Tax, which affected farmers heavily.  Such acts would occasionally result in rebellions, and Congress was quick to implement the Bill of Rights, in order to keep the lower social classes quiet. The Bill of Rights was also implemented in order to get the middle classes to believe in the rights, liberties, and principles America was supposedly building itself on.  According to Howard Zinn, the Constitution was the “work of certain groups to maintain their privileges, while giving just enough rights and liberties to enough of the people to ensure popular support” of the document.  Because the poor whites made up such a large portion of the population of the colonies, rebellion was feared, so the middle class was created in order to serve as a “buffer” between the social classes.  

Both Howard Zinn and Norman Livergood agree that the Constitution was carefully constructed to benefit the wealthy populations of the colonies.  They deliberately excluded Indians, slaves, and women from any securement of “The Blessings of Liberty.”  For Indians, the revolution meant that the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was no longer applicable, and that the boundary line in the Appalachians, which separated the colonies from Indian Territory, was no longer relevant.  The Indians had, in some tribes, tried siding with the British in the Revolution, in hopes of establishing an alliance with the crown, and, thereby, protecting and keeping their own land.  The Indians had also sought a powerful alliance with the French and tried siding with them in the French and Indian War, but once again, their efforts proved meaningless. In the end, both the French and the British left the Indians to face the greed of the colonists alone and without alliance.  Francis Jennings states that “The White Americans were fighting against British imperial control in the East, and for their own Imperialism in the West.”  Unfortunately, even today, conflicts between the U.S. Government and Native Americans still exist, regarding issues such as Native American lands and properties. 

Equality for blacks is also something the U.S. has not yet been completely able to obtain.  Racism has been a constant problem in America, originating from the implementation of colonial laws regarding slaves and blacks.  Thomas Jefferson believed that “blacks were inferior in the faculty of reason.”  Stereotypes such as these, in combination with rare opportunities for blacks to prove otherwise, made it nearly impossible for any black person to become successful.  Whenever a lucky individual disproved the stereotype, the individual was simply discarded as an “exception” and racism and such stereotypes remained firmly implanted in the minds of the colonists.  The Declaration of Independence only ground the concept of racism into the America colonists even more, by excluding them from the rights of liberty and independence.

The American Revolution freed the minorities from the oppressions of the British aristocracy, but there was still a caste system that played a very important role pertaining to governmental decisions.  Essentially, one of the largest changes for the minorities of the colonies was that America had changed its discerning title from an aristocracy to a republic.

Crash

After watching the film Crash, I have begun to realize how crucial a role racism plays into everyday decisions.  For example, when a minority applies for a job, due to the idea of "affirmative action" that person of minority is most likely the person who is going to the job, regardless of the qualifications of the other applicants.  I never realized how present racial stereotypes are in our unconscious decisions, like when we were talking in the seminar, what happened to me as well as several other people is that we would begin to say something or express an idea, and then when we began to realize the implications of what we were saying, we would have to just stop talking.  Before this film, and probably because I live in such an isolated single-minded town, I never realized that there can be racism within races, it's not always a white person slamming a minority.  In the movie, a Hispanic woman and a Chinese woman were fighting over who was responsible for a car crash, and several derogatory terms were stated from both ends.

Racism has changed a lot in the last half century, for example, to the extent of my knowledge, African Americans aren't terrorized in their own homes by organizations like the KKK. This does not mean that racism is not still a problem in our culture.  There are significant links between social class and race that prove that past actions by previous leaders have still not been resolved, and for this reason, stereotypes and discriminations are still very much present in everyday life.

Racism will always exist, although the level of racism may fluctuate with time or given a certain situation (metaphorically because its not quantifiable data).  For example, during the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Muslims were automatically discriminated against in airports, and anybody with a Middle Eastern background was suspected as a terrorist by the general public.  This happened on a greater scale after Pearl Harbor, and anybody Asian was put into a camp and forced to put up with miserable conditions, regardless of the fact that they had been living in the United States for several years or even if they had been born american citizens.  Because the human race is so greedy and its need to dominate will never leave, racism will always be a present factor in our lives, and it will never be completely eradicated.

Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Columbus is one of the most famous people in history, accompanied with several different perspectives and opinions relating to his famous endeavors.  Columbus was a man of knowledge, expertise, eagerness, and a thirst for fame and power.  In his quest to become one of the most notable figures in history, Columbus was both a political powerhouse, and an arrogant liar.

Columbus devoted his victories and discoveries to the King and Queen, knowing that doing so would increase his favor by the monarchs, and, therefore, he would receive grand titles and hefty sums of money.  According to his journal, Columbus named one of the first islands he discovered Ferdinandina, and another Isabela.  Columbus lied and exaggerated about his findings in the new world, so much so that one of his letters was circulated into public, claiming that “Their Highnesses can see that I (Columbus) will give them as much gold as they may need,” despite the fact that gold was scarce in these newly explored lands.  Regardless, Columbus returned to Spain a hero, and Queen Isabella, the main supporter of Columbus’s expeditions, provided funds that allowed him to continue on several more voyages to the new world.  

After the second voyage, however, things started to work against Columbus’s will.  According to Howard Zinn, valuable resources like gold became so scarce, Columbus enslaved the entire Indian population, and if they did not meet the quota of gold that they were supposed to have acquired in the allotted time,  a copper token hung around their necks was not punched with a hole.  Indians that were found without the hole in their tokens had their hands cut off and bled to death.  Despite Columbus’s considerably villainous efforts, he was still not able to acquire a satisfactory amount of gold, and thus his favor decreased in the monarchy’s eye.  In one of his short works, Eduardo Galeano describes Columbus’s return with the description “hostile murmurs are heard in the salon.  The gold is minimal, and there is not a trace of black pepper, or nutmeg, or cloves, or ginger.”  

By his third voyage, Columbus had become ill, and his hold on authority was slipping.  When reports reached Spain that Columbus’s reign was quickly receding, the King and Queen sent  Francisco de Bobadilla to implement a new, firm governance over the Indians and newly established Spanish colonies (Columbus, 2011).  While doing so, Bobadilla arrested Columbus, and sent him home in shackles.  There, Columbus was incarcerated.  Due to his failing health, however, the King and Queen, out of what may have been pity, restored his previous titles, and relieved him of a trial and punishment.  After one last voyage to the new world, Columbus’s illness quickly overtook him, and he died a questionable hero.  

In his lifetime, Columbus did achieve his goal of becoming a notable figure in history, although some of the reasons for his notability probably weren’t intentional.  Columbus’s desperation to bring home plentiful amounts of gold led him to commit such acts as the massacres of Indians.  But even worse was the lack of justifiability of these acts, when there were so many other precious, useful resources that would have turned out profitable, without resulting in the extermination of a large fraction, and in some cases, the entirety of original Indian populations, such as the Arawaks.   Columbus’s refusal to believe that there was not a significant enough amount of gold in the new world to meet demands brought about the true nature of his arrogance.  

Ironically, Columbus wasn’t completely idolized until years after his death. According to an article on the origins of Columbus day, Columbus was chosen as an idol for the newly populated America in the early eighteenth century because “The human need to explain origins, to create self-identity through national identity, was thwarted by this reluctance (of American Revolution leaders to rise to stardom because of their exploits).  A vacuum was created, and was slowly filled with the image of Christopher Columbus.”  To put it shortly, America needed somebody or something to serve as a fundamental base to grow as a new country.  Because Columbus was “the solitary individual who challenged the unknown sea, as triumphant Americans contemplated the dangers and promise of their own wilderness frontier.” The connection with somebody to build and base a culture off of for this new country was perceptive and realistic, especially due to the fact that in 1829,  Washington Irving published his  work, Life of Columbus, and portrayed Columbus as a “romantic hero.”  America immediately began to idealize and adopt him into its growing society.  According to the same article, America’s “adoption of Columbus magnified his own place in history.”

 And so, years after Columbus died, he grew even more famous to the world and was looked upon as a hero, as a result of our own ignorance towards his malicious endeavors.  

"Columbus after 1493." Glencoe Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2011. <http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/btt/columbus/after_1493.shtml>.

Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee

This reenactment of the battle of Wounded Knee made me become aware of several facts behind the western movement.  First, I was surprised at some of the types of opinions and methodologies certain white figures stood behind.  I couldn't quite figure out if Senator Dawson was so much an advocate for the Indians or if he simply used them to further his political career.  The accuracy of the historical content also obscured my understanding of some of these actions.  I also found it very interesting that they gave the Indians their own land, with the basic idea of a sovereign nation being implied, but they felt the need to colonize the Indians, broken down into the tiniest details such as having a Christian name.
I also had no idea that the whites separated the area of land given to the Native Americans into agencies.  I thought that this was especially interesting if they wanted the Indians to provide for themselves that they would provide them rations and supplies for so long without even slowly decreasing the rations and showing the Indians how to cultivate whatever they could from the barren land.
Of course from me there is the everlasting "what the hell were we thinking" reaction, lead on by what we forced the Indians to adapt to and how easily we left them to try to make a life out of virtually nothing.  But after watching the events play out in the assassination of Sitting Bull followed my the massacre at Wounded Knee, this reaction was escalated two fold, and although this period spans across generations to me now, I still feel a level of responsibility for what these people had to go through.