America's Master Race

 

 Lately in class we have been investigating The Gilded (to be covered in a thin layer of gold) Age, an era that roughly took place between Civil War Reconstruction and WWI. This era was known for incredible industrial growth, prosperity, "good times", westward expansion, and worldwide expansion of American political, economic, and military power.

 

 

 As the term Gilded Age implies this period looked good on the surface (prosperity, expansion, power, etc.) but was covering a vast array of political corruption, social problems, and human tragedies (Boss Tweed, White House scandals, the rise of Jim Crow racism/ lynching, Native American Genocide, Nativism, Jingoism, monopolies/ mega-corporations, the "lives" of immigrants, inadequate housing, poor education, extreme poverty, gangs, crime, drug abuse, disease, pollution, etc.).

 

But, in my opinion one of the most shocking "movements" (and virtually unknown) of this era was in the "scientific field" of American Eugenics. Their goal was to create, expand, and preserve a superior race of people (tall, strong, intelligent, talented...blond, blue-eyed, "Nordic" people) and eliminate the possibility of the unfit, the defective, the criminal element, and undeserving immigrants from contaminating American bloodlines.

In the early 1900's, a scientific laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor (N.Y.), the American Eugenics Record Office, and other Eugenics related organizations began collecting data on millions of Americans in order to identify the negative traits in their bloodlines in order to "remove the reproductive capabilities" of the unfit...the defective...the illiterate...the weak...the inferior...and create an American Master Race.

This research was supported (hundreds of millions) by some of the wealthiest families/ corporations in America (Andrew Carnegie, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Harriman Foundation, Alexander Graham Bell, The Kellogg Family, etc.). It was also supported by the U.S. Government (laws, legal action), leading academic universities (mostly Ivy League), and by several religious/ charity organizations.

The action plan (adopted by 27 states) was to "improve" America 10% at a time (millions of people were identified) through the use of publically operated gas chambers, forced sterilizations/ castrations, incarceration, restrictive marriage laws, restrictive immigration policy, deportations, euthanasia, biological weapons like tuberculosis, abortion, etc.

Ultimately (without Due Process), over 60,000 were sterilized, thousands incarcerated/ institutionalized, thousands restricted entry/ deported, thousands not allowed to marry, and many eliminated through "lethal selection". "Positively", thousands of families were identified as superior/ "Fitter Families" and encouraged to have more babies!

In the 1920's, American Eugenicists developed relationships and shared our race science with German eugenicists...Hitler praised the Americans and used the "science" of American Eugenics to develop his own Master Race...

"I have studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny (children) would be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock...

There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception (of immigration policy) are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States."

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is like no education at all."

                                                                      -Aristotle

 

January 1, 1865

Memphis Freedmen Camp near Fort Pickering

 In 1862, Memphis became a federally occupied city and thousands of African-Americans fled to the city seeking "refuge and safety" of The Union Army at Camp Shiloh, Camp Dixie, and Fort Pickering. Prior to Union control of the city Memphis had 3,000 African-American (slave) inhabitants, this number swelled to nearly 20,000 "contraband" by 1865. These settlements quickly developed nearby farm land and opened schools, churches, barber shops, saloons, etc.

But, life was far from perfect.

The Freedman were constantly threatened by local whites/ Union troops and were forced to abide by impromptu "Black Codes"...especially "laws" requiring proof of employment/ vagrancy imprisonment.

Although the transition to freedom was very difficult, there was still reason to celebrate.

Emancipation Day was celebrated annually in Memphis with speeches, a parade, food, etc. to commemorate the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

 Here is a Memphis Bulletin excerpt chronicling the Emancipation Day Parade of January 1, 1865: 

Men who are so fearful of the bugaboo of negro social equality and amalgamation-so apprehensive of the blacks surpassing the whites in intellectual and industrial pursuits that they fear to deal justice to the negro, and cannot see that the true interest of Tennessee lies in wiping out the effete institution of slavery...(these men saw) their parade of school children, and their display of benevolent organizations, as well as their speeches, prayers and singing.
 
The (white) man who looked. . . to ascertain. . . (witnessed) their law abiding character, their loyalty to the Union, their wish to educate their children, their profound gratitude to God, saw more than laughable or absurd incidents. He saw a race rising from ignorant, imbruted chattelism to manhood. He saw them. . . not thirsting for revenge. . . not dreaming of lying in idleness, but with prayers. . . hymns. . .cheers for Lincoln, expressions of intense regard for Union soldiers, and. . .exhorting each other to manful lives and honest labor.

January 1, 1865 (150 years ago today) should be an inspiration for us to:

Allocate justice to all people.

Celebrate our accomplishments.

Be thankful that we live in a country where people earnestly seek freedom.

Exhort each other to dream of living honorable lives.

  

A "Langston Hughes" Happy New Year

The departure of an "old" year and the arrival of 2015 leads me back to a Langston Hughes poem often referred to as "Emancipation"...

Long View: Negro

Emancipation:1865

Sighted through the telescope of dreams

Looms larger,

So much larger,

So it seems,

Than truth can be.

But turn the telescope around,

Look through the larger end-

And wonder why

What was so large

Becomes so small

Again.

What do we truly see when we look backward...when we look forward?

What captures our attention...

the spectacular (murder, riots, war, etc.)...

the mundane (everyday poverty, everyday struggles, everyday racism, etc.)...

conventional wisdom, sensationalism, the illusion of equality...truth?

With every step toward progress, liberty looms larger, so much larger or so it seems...

The Declaration of Independence, The Civil War, The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, WWI, WWII, Brown v. Board of Education, The Civil Rights Era, a "post-racial" America, an increasingly democratic world.

But, it seems what was so large seems to become small again...

A defining of slavery, Black Codes, Jim Crow, American Eugenics, The Southern Manifesto,  the resegregation of America, racial profiling, excessive "military-style" police brutality, increasing fear and paranoia of immigrants, those who are "different", rampant hacking/ spying/ killing of innocent people/ hunger/ hatred.

I hope that in 2015 we can see Liberty sighted through the telescope of dreams...

Let's resolve to take at least two steps forward for every one step back and kill a lot of jellyfish.

Happy New Year!

Minnesota's Trail of Tears

Over 150 years ago, Governor Alexander Ramsey called for the extermination (303 men) and complete removal of the Dakota from Minnesota. Ironically, his September 9, 1862 declaration was brought on by his own government's failure to honor previous treaties which stole millions of acres from the Dakota and purposefully kept food and money from their starving families...now forced to go hunting "off the reservation" it led to violent conflicts with European homesteaders and thousands of Dakota to be placed "under arrest".

 

Trail of Tears: In November of 1862, over 1,700 Dakota (mostly women, children, and elders) were forcibly marched 150 miles from Morton, Minnesota to a recently built internment camp just outside of Ft. Snelling. They suffered (and several hundred died of starvation, disease, hypothermia, etc.) in this "camp" during the winter of 1862-63.

Extermination: On December 6, 1862, Abraham "The Great Executioner" Lincoln approved the largest mass execution (38 men) in United States history at Mankato, Minnesota on December 26, 1862.

In exchange for the list being reduced from 303 down to 38, President Lincoln promised to help kill or remove every Dakota from the state.

Trail of Tears II: In April/ May of 1863, those at Ft. Snelling (about 1,300) were sent down the Mississippi River to St. Louis and up the Missouri River to the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota. The "pardoned" men at Mankato were placed on riverboats and transported to Davenport, Iowa where they spent 3 years in jail...before being sent off to Crow Creek.

Ft. Snelling Concentration Camp

Today, historians still struggle with how to get at the truth, how to remember and tell, falsely appeasing "proud Minnesota" traditions...

Was it a conflict...massacre...uprising...war...murder...genocide?

Should we pardon...seek forgiveness...reparations...reconciliation?

Maybe the best thing we can do is acknowledge the truth of our past...accept the open wounds that still exist...and begin healing.

Alexander Ramsey's modern-day counterpart Gov. Mark Dayton may have said it the best for all of us:

"I am appalled by Governor Ramsey's words and by his encouragement of vigilante violence against innocent people; and I repudiate them. The viciousness and violence, which were commonplace 150 years ago in Minnesota, are not accepted or allowed now...we need to remember that dark past; to recognize its continuing harm in the present; and to resolve that we will not let it poison the future."

Sitting Bull's White Horse

In 1830, Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey delivered a lengthy speech in opposition (and prophetic prelude) to United States "Indian Policy"...an excerpt:

"...if we abandon these aboriginal proprietors (Native Americans) of our soil, these early allies and adopted children of our forefathers, how shall we justify it to our country...How shall we justify this trespass to ourselves...Let us beware how, by oppressive encroachments upon the sacred privileges of our Indian neighbors, we minister to the agonies of future remorse."

Native American elders have often said that "the civilized way of life" ended at the execution of 38 Dakota leaders in Mankato, Minnesota during December of 1862...while most in the government saw this as the beginning of the assault on the "uncivilized Dakota savages" that would end with the murder of Sitting Bull and the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. 

Is this how we justified genocide to ourselves...by "scientifically" categorizing people as uncivilized?

Maybe we could learn something from the "story and symbolism of Sitting Bull's White Horse"?

 

As told by George Eagle Elk in 1969:

 

"When the white horse heard the shooting (the "police" killing Sitting Bull) it began dancing and prancing, sitting on its haunches and raising up its front legs, jumping around, bowing, curtsying, doing all the tricks it had been taught. In this way it honored its dead master in the only way it knew. All who saw it said that the horse was possessed because it was unhurt even though it danced through a hail of bullets. The white horse kept dancing for awhile after the fight was over and the bloody scene was silent..."

 

Maybe we could be The White Horse and honor Native American culture through a redemption of past "lessons of history", reconciliation, seeking the truth, dancing, and understanding the symbolism of the white horse!

 

White Horse as a Message Carrier- "no abuse of power will ever lead to true wisdom, power is only awarded to those willing to carry balanced responsibility."

 

White Horse as Power and Freedom- "power and freedom can only be useful (to the horse and the rider) to accomplish great things when mutual respect and responsibility is shown to each other."

 

 



 

Failure

As a teacher, one of the most frustrating things to witness is students not giving their best (lack of motivation, abysmal attendance, constant texting, distractions/ sleeping, side conversations, poor effort on homework, lack of preparation on tests, "refusing" to think critically, etc.) in school. 

But, what concerns me the most is not learning from these mistakes...

 

 I could tell you hundreds of stories from the past 30 years of teaching about students who failed/ made mistakes/ gave a mediocre effort, were overwhelmed with adversity, quit, etc. and made a conscious decision to fight/ change/ never give up/ make a difference in this world.

To me, this is more impressive than a letter grade...learning about history, math, science, etc...finishing first in a race...

I hear people say, "things are so much better than they used to be" and "we've come a long way."

Are we (as a country) truly learning from our (here are a few) mistakes?

Slavery...Manifest Destiny...Social Darwinism...ISMS...Native "Policy"/ Genocide...Sand Creek...Wounded Knee...Racial Categories...Jim Crow...Mexican "Repatriation"...Race Riots...The Red Scare...McCarthyism...Mohammad Mossadegh...Vietnam...Agent Orange...Watergate...Rodney King...Weapons of Mass Destruction...Benghazi...Racial Profiling...Police Brutality...Excessive Force...Droning the Innocent...Resegregation of schools...

Or are our principles just truths we seek when they agree with our selfish emotions?

All Skulls Created Equal?

"Nations and races, like individuals have each an especial destiny: some are born to rule, and others to be ruled. And such has ever been the history of mankind. No two distinctly marked races can dwell together on equal terms."

 

                                                                                        -Josiah Nott

 



 

 

 

In 1854, Dr. Josiah Nott compiled and published a 738 page best-selling book entitled Types of Mankind. It cited a massive amount of "scientific research"/data, quoted "findings", and displayed elaborate illustrations collected by the greatest scientists of the era.

 

Near the bottom of the title page was an ominous and prophetic quote by Lord Byron...

 



“But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling, like dew, upon a thought produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions think.”

 



 

The most influential scientist published in this book was Harvard professor-Dr. Samuel George Morton. He was well-known for "owning" the world's largest collection of skulls (600+ over several decades) which he analyzed, measured, compared, and ranked to help prove his belief that African-Americans, Native Americans, Chinese, etc. were each a different biological species (races) and inferior to Caucasians.

 

These "Racist Head Games" were used to predict brain size and the "progress/ potential of each race" in intellectual capabilities, morality, behavior, job capabilities, and capacity for future achievement.

 

Morton's "Cranial" Conclusion:

 

 "The Negroes have little invention, but strong powers of imitation, so that they readily acquire mechanic arts. They have a great talent for music, and all their external senses are remarkably acute."

 

Another Harvard professor, Swiss-born Louis Agassiz (a world-renowned biologist/ geologist) was deeply influenced and swayed (he had previously believed that man came from a single species) by Morton's "cranial data" and quickly became an "authority" on race.

Agassiz quotes:

"As much as I try to feel pity at the sight of this degraded and degenerate race, as much as their fate fills me with compassion in thinking of them as really men, it is impossible for me to repress the feeling that they are not the same blood as us..."


"The brain of the Negro is that of an imperfect seven month's infant in the womb of a White...they are incapable of living on a footing of social equality with the whites, in one and the same community, without becoming an element of social disorder...the government must put every possible obstacle to the crossing of the races, and the increase of half-breeds."

These "scientific findings" were used far beyond (even in 2014!) the abolition of slavery to rationalize and justify Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, Jim Crow Segregation, The Negro Problem, Native American Genocide, Chinese Exclusion, Mexican "Repatriation", Japanese Internment, Quotas, Real Estate Redlining, racial profiling, police brutality/ excessive force, the "drug wars"/ Jim Crow Incarceration, resegregated Public Schools, the "Black/Latino" Achievement Gap, U.S. Census racial categories, whitewashed History books, our friends/ neighbors...I could go on!  

I think Lord Byron was right about the power of "a small drop of ink"...it just depends upon which drop we choose to believe.


KEEP KILLING JELLYFISH!