Historical and Contemporary Racism Against Native American Indians and African Americans

Between the 19^th and 20^th centuries, millions of people flocked to witness "Human Zoos," a type of fair that exhibited exotic people from around the world (Pascal Blanchard). The Human Zoo featured hundreds of different races of people, mostly from East Asia or Africa, and portrayed them as the missing link between primates and civilized Europeans. This fueled the West's colonialism, since this "animalization" perpetuated the duty the West had to domestic and to tame what were considered exotic savages into more civilized people (Pascal Blanchard). The Human Zoo reflected the racism the West conceived towards hundreds of different types of people, and by probing certain aspects of America's history, the same racist disposition appears towards Native American Indians and African Americans. An examination of Native and African Americans in America shows a relationship between America's history and the consistency and institutionalization of racism, as well as a concise understanding of how racism is still implemented today. By first viewing the history of racism against Native American Indians and African Americans, and then the contemporary aspect of racism, a distinct correlation can show how history, race, and modern events are all related and how racism trickles from the past into our modern society.

In Lies Teachers Tell, author James Loewen states that American Indians have been the most "lied-about subset of our population," due to the omission of anti-Indian racism in high school textbooks. Native Americans have experienced consistent anti-Indian racism from European settlers and the United States government. This anti-Indian racism mimics Tatum's definition of racism: "a system of advantage based on race" (Tatum 9). Two contrasting examples show how the anti-Indian racism was consistent for almost 200 years.

In 1788, the United States intentionally declined to legislate with the Delaware Indians when they proposed that Native Americans be admitted to the union as a separate state (121). Congress staunchly refused to debate the idea (Jennings 479). The refusal to discuss this idea shows the racism present in the Congress at the time. In the 1840's, Indian Territory decided to try to send representatives to Congress-a right practiced by other territories (Loewen 121). White Southerners stopped them, promising to admit the Territory as a state if the South won the Civil War (Satz 216-218). Though lobbied by the South, Indians did not receive fair, legal treatment, like that of other territories. This parallels the blatant anti-Indian racism viewed in 1788, since Indian Territory rights were not upheld.

Roger Williams of Salem challenged Massachusetts in the 1630's to renounce its royal patent on the land, stating that the "Natives are true owners of it" (Loewen 126). The Puritans did not share William's view, causing him to flee to Rhode Island (Stineback 48). Similarly, Helen Hunt Jackson paid to provide copies of her famous indictment of Native American policies, A Century of Dishonor, to every member in Congress in 1881 (Loewen 126). She failed to make any movement towards Indian's rights, since Congress would not consider her argument. Through these two examples, we can see how individuals who fought for Native American rights were not taken seriously. Congress repudiated Helen Jackson's book and the Puritans ran Roger Williams out of town. This contrast is noted as cultural racism, since the neglectful views enforce the inferiority of Native Americans. The time between 1630 and 1881 changed nothing within white supremacist ideologies.

Between these examples, anti-Indian racism has remained consistent for over 250 years! The historical progress of the American nation seems to leave out any progress of Native American rights. In the Native American experience, racism never wilted away, never died off, but rather was implemented in the same blatant tactics, but also in different ways, such as cultural racism.

African Americans have experienced a much more blatant racism, such as lynching and the formation of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. The same analysis used to determine the relationship of anti-Indian racism with history can produce the same results when viewed in the anti-African American context.

In the 1450's, Europeans considered Africans exotic "but not inferior" (Loewen 136). As the trans-Atlantic slave trade boomed, more and more Europeans came to stereotype Africans as "stupid, backward, and uncivilized" (136). Forgetting the academically-juggernaut university and library at Timbuctu, Europeans began to conceive Africa as the "dark continent" (136). In the 1850's, many white Americans claimed African Americans as "so hopelessly inferior that slavery was a proper form of education" for them (136)! This transformation from "exotic but inferior" to "hopelessly inferior" shows the decadence of the African and the rise of slavery and anti-African racism. The anti-African racism increased over time.

James Loewen shows us that the 1961 edition of Triumph of the American Nation-an American history textbook-condemned Reconstruction Republicanism in the South, stating that "Many of the 'carpetbag' governments were inefficient, wasteful, and corrupt" (150). The 1986 edition of the same textbook states "The southern reconstruction legislatures started many needed and long overdue public improvements...strengthened public education...spread the tax burden more equitably...Confederates back into the new order, not African Americans (153). This is how textbooks relay a passive, accidental racism, since textbook writers still have the white supremacist mindset, which is obvious in their texts.

Both the historical context of anti-Indian and anti-African American racism show consistent racist ideologies. History and race are consistent and direct with each other. A contemporary examination of anti-Indian and anti-African American racism will provide substantial insight as to how racism is present in modern society, if the conclusion of the relationship between history and racism is true.

Mr. Ben Nava, a co-founder of the Texas Chapter of AIM, the American Indian Movement, remarks that "food costs and suicide rates" are higher among Natives than non-Natives (Nava). Mr. Nava compared the genocide-like restrictions of modern reservations with the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, while specifically citing the ridiculous housing, shortage of commodities, and lack of jobs. Some of the sacred Indian traditions, such as the Sun Dance, are forbidden even on the reservation. Mr. Nava parallels the rituals with a type of Indian religion, and that forbidding it would be the same as taking away a Catholic's ability to attend church (Nava). In his view, he responded to this idea saying that it was the most passive form of "genocide" (Nava). The anti-Indian racism is still felt heavily today.

The modern Civil Rights movement of the 1960's may seem like racism has come to a halt, and that those involved in the process truly believed a moral liberation had been established. The FBI would disagree. In 1964, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent a fake videotape of Martin Luther King Jr. with a note suggesting suicide to King (Loewen 225). The main plot was to get King divorced by his wife. J. Edgar Hoover, in response to King's denials of the film, later remarked that King was "the most notorious liar in the country," in an attempt to derail his movement (225). The film "American Blackout" explains how the Republicans may have illegally miscounted African American votes in Florida during the 2000 Presidential election. The African Americans were part of an "only 80% accurate" list compiled in order to list felons, who are not eligible voters; the inaccurate 20% was composed of African Americans, who are mostly Democrats, thus trying to omit Democrat votes for presidential hopeful Al Gore (Inaba). Both of these cases are acts of blatant racism in the late 20^th century that specifically targeted African Americans and their right to vote. The anti-African American movement is still very present in today's society, and is not a dead ideology just because of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960's.

History and racism are tied together, and because of this, we find prominent examples of anti-Indian and anti-African American racism that are present in contemporary society. The blatant and cultural racism of the 18^th and 19^th century are just as racist as those in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. The examination of Native and African Americans in America shows a relationship between America's history and the implementation of blatant, passive, and cultural racism, as well as a concise understanding of how racism is felt today. Instead of a Human Zoo, we essentially have a failure to democracy by discounting African American votes and a slow, perpetual genocide to those Natives on Indian Reservations. It seems that, in the words of Cynthia McKinney, "we would rather hold onto the myth of democracy rather than fight for the reality of it" (Inaba).

Works Cited

American Blackout. Dir. Ian Inaba. 2006.

Jennings, Francis. Empire of Fortune. New York: Norton, 1988.

Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Nava, Mr. Ben. Interview. 4 September 2008.

Pascal Blanchard, Nicolas Bancel, and Sandrine Lemaire. From human zoos to colonial apotheoses: the era of exhibiting the Other. 22 September 2008 .

Satz, Ronald. American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975.

Stineback, Charles M. Segal and David C. Puritans, Indians, and Manifest Destiny. New York: Putnam, 1977.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Basic Books, 2003.

Turtle, S. Blancke and C. J. P. Slow. "The Teaching of the Past of the Native Peoples of North America in U.S. Schools." MacKenzie, Peter Stone and Robert. The Excluded Past. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990. 124.