race_and_history

Race, Ethnicity, and American History

Let's turn back the clock for a moment. Think of the United States, not in the 21st century, but in the 19th century. The 1800s. When we were a brand new country, fresh off of a revolutionary war, trying to find our way.

In those days there is no question that race was a defining quality of the American experience. That word—race—is a catch-all term that indicates one's appearance, and sometimes their place of origin, and native language [1]. It is a word that describes who you are to other people. You might be light-skinned and descended from English settlers. You might be fair-haired with an accent, perhaps identifying you as Scottish or Irish. You or your ancestors could be from southern Europe or the Far East or Africa. You could have descended from indigenous peoples who were on the continent for thousands of years. You were a kind of person, an ethnicity, a member of a group. But to put it simply: however others saw you, that was your race.

And in the early 1800s in America, your race almost completely determined your entire trajectory in life. Whether you were rich or poor, respected or disdained, free or in chains. This isn't controversial, it's the plain truth. Notably: back then, if you were a native American, you were likely regarded as a savage. And if you were black, you were likely a slave.

This is a fact with which everyone should be familiar. Slavery was widespread throughout the world. Some people were owned as livestock by other people. That statement shouldn't be news, but it is worth repeating. Millions of individuals spent their entire lives as property. They were unfree. They were bought and sold and used.

Slavery was officially (that is, technically) made illegal in the United States with the 13th Amendment. But we all know that this did not immediately end racism nor discussion about race. Nor is race only about people with dark skin with African descent. We can all acknowledge—with even a rudimentary knowledge of history—that some groups of people [2] were the target of discrimination throughout the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and even into the 1900s.

It's worth a reminder that, for example, black people were actively barred from using many of the same public and private facilities throughout most of the last century. Schools, buses, trains, and restaurants were all segregated. In fact, entire cities were segregated. Neighborhoods were like the panes in a stained glass window. The social fabric of the country was built on race, and the resulting geography was a patchwork of race.

This brings us to today. The legacy of race remains with us. The laws have changed. The institutions have modified their procedures [3]. It is no longer socially acceptable to use racist terms in every day speech. But the wounds remain, and the bones of our country still ache from this history.

For race and racism, have work to do. And the first step is developing a shared understanding of where we came from and where we are.


[1] The words "race" and "ethnicity" are difficult to define precisely, which is part of the reason we're having this conversation.

[2] Another example.

[3] This has affected even tree coverage and brownfields in urban areas.

race_and_history.txt · Last modified: 2021/12/02 09:32 by rslaughter