Race: the power of an illusion and the stories we tell

Race: The Power of an Illusion

The story we tell"

According to "Part II: The story we tell" of the PBS documentary "Race: The power of an illusion," race is a uniquely powerful cultural construction that has had a seemingly intractable hold upon the American psyche. Race is not about physical appearance, given that a wide variety of traits can be observed within a defined ethnic group. Rather it is about the stories we tell about our so-called racial identities. At the beginning of America's founding, both whites and blacks served in 'bound' capacities: whites served as indentured servants, African-Americans as slaves. However, gradually indentured servitude fell out of fashion. The racialized identity of slaves 'marked' them as separate in a way that was not the case with Europeans. This dividing line between black and white, servant and slave, caused even poor whites to use their whiteness as a source of positive self-definition.

The importance of race was further emphasized by the presence of Native Americans nearby white settlements. By the time Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, the institution of slavery was entrenched. However, Jefferson, a slave-holder, conceptualized a gradated racialized system: he viewed African-Americans as inferiors, Native Americans as more 'natural,' pure and free and tied to the land and Europeans as manifesting the highest level of culture. Race was conceptualized in terms of color: Jefferson hoped that once the Native Americans were civilized they would lose some of their 'brownness' and become physically as well as culturally white.

While African-Americans were seen as only fit for enslavement, Native Americans were first made targets of a civilization campaign, to force them to adopt European dress, language, and agricultural habits. Jefferson was convinced that eventually science would confirm his deep, instinctual sense that African-Americans were different than Europeans but Native Americans were not. His 'instinct' was obviously honed by a culture built upon slavery, and coming from a man that, despite his rhetoric about equality, had a lifestyle dependant upon the enslavement of others.

This conviction in racialized 'science' became even more popular as science grew more central to American culture in the 19th century, as did slavery and its profitability for owners. However, the idea about the innate equality of Native Americans and Europeans began to fall out of favor. Although some Native Americans agreed to the 'civilization' campaign, or felt they could not resist it, the desire of America's leaders to expand across the nation's frontier proved too great. Jefferson believed in the need for American expansiveness, to satisfy American curiosity, ambition, and need for security, and of course this fell afoul of the Native American lifestyle on the plains and prairies.

The eviction of the Cherokees, one of the tribes most willing to be subjected to 'civilizing' influences showed the fundamentally self-serving nature of much of the inflated rhetoric about the benefits of making Native Americans more European for 'their own good' and to advance their society. It also illustrated the solidification of the definition of a true American as a white male. Andrew Jackson was a populist, and spoke out against the landed aristocracy, of which Jefferson was a member. Jackson wanted votes for all men, regardless of property-holding status, but he also wanted to expand property ownership to a larger proportion of the population. This would be accomplished by expansion westward.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 confirmed the Jacksonian idea that America was not a race-neutral civilization, and depended upon the subjugation and eradication of some races, while it strove to build up its own status: "They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and superior race, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear," said Jackson, defending his actions.

The war with Mexico, which resulted in the establishment of Texas as one of the states of the union, was also characterized as a battle of civilizations, with Mexicans being characterized as 'inferior' and undeserving of a state that had been their territory, into which they had invited American settlers. Because the American settlers in Texas were white, ergo Texas was seen as a 'white' and 'American' nation in a way that transcended most legal conceptions of what constituted national ownership of a territory.