Nativism and race in American history

Nativism and Race

Nativism and Racism

Not only do I agree with the statement that "Nativism (anti-foreign immigrant prejudice) and racism (anti-non-white prejudice) have been common in American history; they have raised temporary barriers to white ethnic groups and permanent 'caste' barriers against non-white racial groups," but I believe that any person who disagrees with that statement is either hopelessly naive, or woefully ignorant of American history. As Sowell states, "History is what happened, not what we wish had happened- nor what a theory or ideology says should have happened." (Sowell, p.273). However, Sowell's writings tend to disregard the truth of that statement, because, at times, he takes a seemingly revisionist approach to some aspects of American history.

As a result, I disagree with his conclusion that one cannot describe a cause and effect relationship between the treatment of specific ethnic groups and their current status in American society.

Sowell does a wonderful job describing the evolution of different ethnic groups in American society. He describes ethnic groups whose use of the English language and physical appearance made it likely that they would be able to assimilate into the English-dominated American society, but he also describes groups like the Japanese who had both language and physical barriers preventing them from immediate assimilation into society. What Sowell's study of these ethnic groups reveals is that there is no direct correlation between the degree of difference between an ethnic group and the dominant society and how quickly that group could assimilate into American society. For example, he illustrates that the Irish had many advantages when entering American society, because they were physically and culturally similar to the English and spoke English, but that the Irish took an extraordinary amount of time to overcome the initial barriers to assimilation in America. He contrasts the Irish with the Jews, who came to America with few financial resources and were among the poorest of all ethnic groups at the beginning of the 19th century, but are now among the wealthiest of all ethnic groups. Sowell talks about the history of rampant anti-Semitism and discusses how the barriers erected against Jews were greater than those erected against any other ethnic groups, save blacks, so that one would anticipate them to remain at the bottom of American society. Furthermore, when discussing the Jews, and the Asian minority groups, Sowell immediately dismisses the role that any cultural emphasis on education could have had on rates of assimilation. For example, he draws the conclusion that because newly immigrated Jews were so focused on sustenance, they had no time for education. However, this approach ignores the important role that education has continuously played in the Jewish culture; a role that makes the transition into higher education natural.

Sowell also ignores the substantial difference between blacks and other ethnic groups. Other ethnic groups migrated willingly to America, and were able to form communities surrounded by people of other ethnic groups. Furthermore, other groups were not subjected to the system of slavery, which set up the racial caste system that exists today. In fact, Sowell himself is guilty of perpetuating the same type of racism that helped develop the caste system of racism. Blacks are not given the same type of ethnic identity as the Irish or Germans, for example. He does not refer to these groups as Europeans or as whites, but acknowledges their different ethnic identities. Likewise, slaves who were brought against their wills to America came from different countries in Africa and were, themselves, composed of different ethnic groups. When brought here, they were mixed in with members of other groups, many times with traditional enemies. This prevented the type of zero-generation ethnic community building that was essential to the evolution of the group within society. Moreover, one cannot ignore the damage that slavery did to the individual slave families; while other ethnic groups could at least turn to families for support and understanding, early black immigrants were denied this basic ability. Furthermore, one of the most damaging practices in slavery was the sexual use of slave women by their masters. This practice created children, many of whom were deeply detested by their slave mothers. These children were marked by this in their lighter skin and whiter features. However, some, though by no means all, white fathers freed their children, creating a caste of free blacks that was generally lighter skinned than the overall slave population. The practice also helped around the stability of slave families, since slave women did not have the luxury of protesting this sexual use. In fact, the practice of sexual assault against female slaves was so pervasive that, at the time of emancipation, most slaves in America already had some non-African ancestors. Ironically, this has led to the erosion of a multi-tiered caste system, such as the one that exists in India, and instead an absolute caste system, which places all non-black ethnic groups in a position superior to blacks. Of course there are exceptions; caste systems define the norms for the majority of the population, but the reality is that there is a race-based caste system in America, which certainly seems to be permanent.