Multicultural America Has Been Multicultural Term Paper

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"The 'White' race was obeying the 'divine command, to subdue and replenish the earth,' as it searched for new and distant lands."

They were proud of their progress.

They believed they were bringing civilization to races and people who would otherwise be primitive heathens. If they couldn't convert them, they killed them. They were destroying "savagery." Houses replaced wigwams. White women replaced Indian squaws. And all of it was done in the name of God. They were really doing it for money, but rationalized the evil of it by calling it progress. This attitude, that whites were a civilizing influence, extended toward the yellow races also.

A chose this section because it is another example of how capitalism lacks a social conscience. The Chinese were brought here for cheap labor and were exploited for profits.

To paraphrase: Annexing California led to bringing Asian workers here to build a transcontinental railroad. The railroad would make it possible for America to export goods to Asia. The Chinese workers were also used to clear the land and cultivate farms in California. They were found to be very good workers and talented at growing things. Civilizing other races really meant exploiting them for cheap labor and bigger profits.

In a plan sent to Congress in 1848, shortly after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, policy-maker Aaron W. Palmer predicted that San Francisco, connected by railroad to the Atlantic states, would become 'the great Emporium of our commerce on the Pacific'" (p. 192).

At first the Chinese were welcome in California, but within a couple years a "California for Americans" slogan signaled a changing climate and discrimination against them began (p. 195).

4. In 1890 a cult of "ghost dancers" got started among the Indians.

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They danced for God to come to them, save them, and destroy the whites. The movement quickly grew and whites became alarmed. When the government heard about it, they went after the leaders such as Sitting Bull and Big Foot. Something like what happened at Waco more recently occurred. Soldiers in a panic killed everybody, men, women, and children at Wounded Knee. They massacred them. I chose this section to try to understand better America's policies toward Native Americans. The belief in white superiority is evident in the government's dealings with Indians. Indians were considered savages.

To paraphrase: The commissioner of Indian affairs, Francis Walker, had very little experience with Indians. He believed the government should be in charge of the lives of Indians. His plan was to put them on reservations and teach them to work at industrial jobs. According to him they were not used to manual labor because they rode horses to hunt and had no self-discipline. They would be forced to stay on the reservation and leave only by special permission.

If they tried to run, they could be arrested. Walker claimed this would prepare them to enter civilized society. They had to be civilized because there was no more frontier and no place for "wild Indians" to go anymore. So once white America had taken away all the Indian's land, then they had to find a place, away from white society, to put them and keep them under control. Like blacks, Indians were victims of stereotyping:

Seclusion was necessary, Walker explained, because Indians were disposed toward the 'lower and baser elements of civilization,' and whenever they became 'restive under compulsion to labor,' they were inclined to break away and….....

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