The phony narrative that America is a racist nation must end. We are being fed the sensationalized impression that America was a nation of whites who subsisted upon destroying and subjugating non-white races.
There is a LOT more to our history than dumbing it down to that.
- Throughout the eras of America’s birth, development, and expansion, several European nations continued their bid to stake claims to North American territory. This was a source of pure fear for Americans in that day.
- Non-white races were caught up in a power struggle between a burgeoning America and several imperialistic European nations. Enslavement was a common practice throughout the history of humanity, and it still lingered as America was founded.
- America sought only to establish itself as a sovereign nation free of a continental enemy due to colonization by the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, or other European powers.
- America did not set out intent upon destroying any race of people. Conflicts between native peoples and Americans were the unintended consequences arising from a push to gain continental territory before European imperialists did.
- Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was a decision originating from fear of reprisals from adherents to Shintoism, NOT merely a racist subjugation of people who were not white. There was no way to distinguish fanaticism related to apotheosis of the Japanese emperor. In order to prevent widespread panic that would have resulted in the slaying of untold numbers of Japanese Americans out of fear arising from reports of atrocities being committed in the Pacific by the Japanese Imperial Army, the decision was made to place them in encampments. It was as much for their safety as it was for the safety of the overall American populace. Equating this to the Nazi concentration camps intent on exterminating the Jewish population of Europe is ignorant.
Looking back from the perspective of today’s ideals is historical fallacy.
- How dare they establish liberty and still hold slaves…
- How dare they wage war on the Indigenous peoples of North America…
- How dare they place Japanese Americans in internment camps…
Life is lived forward without the benefit of looking back on the history of one’s decisions to justify their impact.
America carved itself a civilized democratic republic out of nothing, with no coeval model to follow, from a point in history in which slavery, human brutality toward others, and constant fear of conquest were already established.
America did not simultaneously invent liberty, slavery, imperialism, and continental expansion… the latter three already existed. America invented liberty while struggling to cope with civilizing itself beyond the others.
Now, we can appreciate having accomplished that. We shall NOT judge our forefathers based upon what we only now have attained.
They had the unprecedented foresight to establish The United States Constitution “in order to form a more perfect union”. They realized that the existing conditions of their union were not perfect; they established a constitution that allow the development, bit by bit, into a nation with liberty and justice for all. That did not happen with the stroke of a pen, overnight, or without great efforts of many great people over many years.
After 240 years of perfecting a free civilization beyond that which existed in the 18th Century… we MUST NOT condemn our forefathers for not being what we are now. We MUST NOT condemn Americans of historical significance, through good times and bad, for the development that occurred from era to era.
We must continue to revere them for laying the foundation and raising the structure that allowed us to become what we are now.
Political Furies: The Voices Never Heard 