"Racism is rendered as the innocent daughter of Mother Nature"
"This leads us to another equally important ideal, one that Americans implicitly accept but to which they make no conscious claim. Americans believe in the reality of "race" as a defined, indubitable feature of the natural world. Racism--the need to ascribe bone-deep features to people and then humiliate, reduce, and destroy them--inevitably follows from this inalterable condition. In this way, racism is rendered as the innocent daughter of Mother Nature, and one is left to d
In the story of American exceptionalism, Native Americans cease to exist after Manifest Destiny
"Atop the U.S. Capitol, there is a frieze depicting American history. At first, Native Americans fight an onslaught of colonists. Our final reference is the death of Tecumseh and a kneeling Native American woman, hands upraised. There is nothing after. In the story of American exceptionalism, Native Americans cease to exist after Manifest Destiny. ...But Native Americans didn’t go extinct. We’re still here. And this is the racial wallpaper we see. A largely forgotten, margina
