I’m not sure how to feel about the “Pithissipi Burning” article. When I first started reading, I was really angry and then I became sad at the amount of ignorance and lack of acceptance that remains in the United States. It really bothered me that the writer considers himself or herself “an aficionado of hate literature” (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I am aware that everyone is entitled to his or her own preferences, but to be attracted to literature focusing on hatred really made me uneasy. Instead of focusing on such negative things, we should focus on how we can make things better. Complaining about issues and problems will not resolve anything. The time, energy, and effort used to spread such venom should be used in a positive way. This article really focuses on the ignorance of racists. A movement called “The Northwest Homeland” is discussed. It’s a group of white separatists, who relocated to Washington, Oregon, and Idaho and forced the “mud people” who currently live there out. (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I had to find out who the “mud people” are. Upon further research, I found mud people are non-white people. (Christian identity) I wanted to be mad about this, but when I thought about it, this is truly sad. It saddened me to discover Christian Pastor, Richard Girnt Butler, founded this group (The Northwest Homeland-History). The word Christian means to be Christ-like. Jesus Christ is not a racist. He doesn’t exclude anyone. While on earth, He went to the places no one else wanted to go. I just don’t understand this way of thinking. These people moved to the northwest portion of the country and exclude themselves from the rest of society because the white “race is being wiped out” (The Northwest Homeland- FAQ). It is impossible to ignore the fact there are different races, but to be so extreme as to degrade people because of the color of their skin is ridiculous. The author also references a book called “The Brigade,” by H.A Covington. A quote from the book was the single most disturbing part of the entire article, “The Brigade is a nuts and bolts diagram of how this white homeland should be started, complete with instructions on organizing terror cells, details on military and propaganda tactics and plenty of diatribes against the federal government, Jews, blacks, and Hispanics”. (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I was left speechless after reading that. To think there is a detailed manual of how to disperse the hatred of other races and the government is sickening. The last part of the article talks about the book, “The New White Nationalism”, by Carol Swain. The book is about thorough research she has done of white nationalism groups. Her research showed the assimilation of black art in the popular culture of the United States has ignited their efforts of obtaining more white nationalists. (Tobia, P.J. 2009).This isn’t surprising to me. I’m certain being asked about their hatred of other races only fueled white supremacy. It wasn’t until the end of the article that I realized the author isn’t a supporter of this type of thinking. The author’s comment “those of us on the other side of the issue don’t have a handbook for how to move forward with this kind of social and cultural integration” (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I completely agree with his statement, because with that type of thinking it is harder to truly become one unified nation. After reading this article, it is apparent to me we’ve come a long was as country, but until the taught hatred of racism stops, we continue to have a long way to go in acceptance of everyone regardless of race.
I found “The Challenge of “Multiculturalism” in How Americans Views the Past and the Future” an interesting read. I never thought about it, but a nation defines itself by how it teaches its children about itself (Taylor, S. (n.d). As, I was reading this article, I was fascinated that multiculturalism is now being taught in schools. When I was in grade and high school, I was taught the “white history” of the United States. It’s been many years, but the main things I remember learning about are the Mayflower, Christopher Columbus discovering America, the Presidents, and Wars the United States was involved with. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I had questions as to why I was being taught what I was being taught. I never could understand why Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the United States of America when the Indians were already there. I asked teachers, peers, and family about that and never got an answer I truly understood. This article brought out points I agree with. A point that I experienced, but didn’t think of in these terms is “The purpose of American public education has never been to impart knowledge. One of its central goals has been to make children into Americans” (Taylor, S. (n.d.). I found this out to be true in my own education. Sometimes when my classmates or I would ask the teacher a question, I would hear “that’s the way it is” or the subject would be changed. I found this to mean there are things in our society students should not question. In other words, this is how things are done in America. Reading and understanding what I experienced is so profound. The article also mentions the history taught the pre- multiculturalism way of teaching is “history about white people for white people” (Taylor, S. (n.d.) This makes so much sense to me. At the foundation of education there were only white people in the classrooms. Curriculum for how to teach was geared towards white people because that is who taught the classes and that is what it meant to be an American. As time has passed other races and ethnicities have migrated to America, causing a problem in the way the history of the country is taught. The biggest lessons I learned reading this article is “history has a point of view; it cannot be all things to all people” (Taylor, S. (n.d.). My view of this perspective greatly changed after reading this. I thought the history of America is going to be taught the way it has also been forcing on the contributions of Anglo-America descent and not teaching the contributions from other races. I’m forced to think about my history and realize all we have is our own perspective. What’s important to Mexican- Americans in terms of the history of America is not the same for what is important to African-Americans. It is impossible to teach the complete history of the United States without leaving something or someone out. All races have contributed to the history of this country and that is what makes America such a great nation. Reading about certain areas in the country catering the history to the race of the students is good, but it would be great if all students got the opportunity get a well-rounded education of this nation’s history. I know that is a vague statement, but if some of the contributions of all races are taught, then no race will be left out. Everyone will not be pleased, but at least it will be a much more accurate depiction of history instead
The “Why Multiculturalism Is Wrong” article discusses the program “education in own language and culture”. Education in own language is the idea that regardless of where a child is born they will be taught the language of their ancestry. This is a program utilized in the Netherlands. A child can have an “own” language of Turkish and speak only Dutch. This can happen if both parents are Turkish citizens. (Why multiculturalism is wrong). The child will be taught Turkish because of his or her hereditary. This was bizarre to me because regardless if the child used their parents’ language, it was still taught to them. An interesting topic in this article is the multiculturalist’s link of culture to the existing nation (Why multiculturalism is wrong). In other words, if a child with Armenian parents were born in the United States, the child would be Armenian. The article goes on to explain this is not exclusive to this part of the world. The use of hyphenated identities is consistent with the particular country (Why multiculturalism is wrong). After reading this article, I’m certain multiculturalism is a societal issue. In essence, this all comes down to race. It is called “multiculturalism”, but it’s a fancy way of saying different races.
For some reason unknown to me, people like to categorize things and people. Identifying what ethnicity or race someone belongs to is a part of human nature, in my experience. I am not referencing this being used in a discriminatory or destructive way, but simply a way to categorize. We are visual beings and we use someone’s race or ethnicity to describe them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all three articles and truly learned about myself and how others view race in our society.
References
Tobia, P.J. (23 February 2009). Pithissippi burning: Race, white nationalism and American culture. Nashville Scene. Retrieved from
http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2009/02/23/pithissippi-burning-race-white-nationalism-and-american-culture
Christian Identity. (n.d.) retrieved from
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Christian_Identity.asp?xpicked=4&item=Christian_ID
The Northwest Homeland- FAQ. Retrieved from.
http://www.northwesthomeland.org/faq.html
The Northwest Homeland- History. Retrieved from
http://www.northwesthomeland.org/history.html
Taylor, S. (n.d). The challenge of “multiculturalism” in how Americans view the past and the future. Retrieved from
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p159_Taylor.html
Why multiculturalism is wrong. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/multicult.html
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