Apess begins his story talking about the conditions of the reservation that Indians are living in and having to deal with, and blames the white men for these conditions. This is due to them “supposedly” being the masters or overseers’ of the reservations. He talks about how the white men could care less if the Indians lived or died. That the white men would take a lot of the Indians vegetation and taking their timber which is of most value to the Indians or any other items for free and then selling it to get a profit for themselves off of it. He feels that with no education the Indians are feel they cannot take care of themselves or their land.
The British showed discrimination throughout history towards the Irish, for they treated them in an extremely mean manner. The English colonizers thought of them as sluggish people, who were criminals, and formed a two-tiered social structure; in addition they were prevented from purchasing land, bear office and could not marry other colonizers (Takaki 27). Altjough race was not the deciding factor for this discrimination, the English showed they felt superior to another group. The Irish were thought to be savages and this same type of thoughts was then directed toward Indians, for the first English colonizers in the New World found that the Indians reminded them of the Irish (29). However, with the Indians, race played a factor because they were of dark complexion unlike the Irish and the English wondered if they were different kinds of savages.
It was a widely held belief that Indigenous people were an inferior race and would eventually die out. Many policies enacted on them had a greatly detrimental effect upon their cultural heritage. Policies such as the forced Indigenous people off the land and into government reserves, the assimilation policy tried to force Indigenous people to adopt a Western lifestyle by giving up their traditional lifestyle and beliefs. They were expected to live and act like ‘white Australians’ but were denied equal wages, work conditions and welfare benefits received by other Australians. Other policies attempted to ‘breed-out’ Indigenous Australians by pairing an Indiginous individual with a white partner.
Racism "Racism breeds racism in reverse." These words so candidly written by Mary Crow Dog, a Lakota Sioux, describe the reverse effect indian boarding schools had upon their pupils. These old Indian boarding schools were intended to push Native Americans into accepting a new way of life as a white man. In lieu of attempting to live peacefully along side the Natives, the white settlers felt they had to force the Indian population to become "civilized". The word civilized, as defined by Websters, means to have an advanced or humane culture, society, etc.. White men did not see the Indian culture as advanced or humane and therefore began forcing white man's way of life upon the Native American Tribes.
I share the shame viewpoint that DeVoto expresses. In Calvin Martin’s piece we look at the European impact on the Indian culture in terms of Ecology. We looked at the Micmac Indians of eastern Canada and how the Europeans shattered their value structure. The Micmacs believed that everything has a spirit. Beavers were an animal that the Micmacs held very high spiritually.
Year 10 History Essay Question: “Australia is, and always has been a racist country” We all have to agree that from the time that Australia was colonized till the 1960’s ish Australia has being a racist country, we have kicked out the previous owners, we have rejected Asians an only let white people in, through government schemes such as the white people only policy. My 3 topics im gonna work on are Laws, Government policys and the peoples culture. Firstly the laws of Australia could be considered racist by the way you look at them, however up until recently the laws have being down right racist to people who aren’t white, for example after WW2 the Australian government activated a scheme which only wanted white people in Australia an if you weren’t white then you were kicked out, they used tatics were officials would go around an test people they thought weren’t Australian an they would use
Chapter 8 Navigating Masculinities Across the Cultural Ditch: Tales from Māori Men in Australia Richard Pringle & Paul Whitinui Introduction Contemporary Australia is multiethnic yet the lucky country has not always induced good luck for its indigenous population or non-white settlers. More bluntly, Australia’s history of race relations can be regarded as shameful (MacLeod 2006). Colin Tatz (1999) reported, in relation to the United Nation’s definition of genocide, that policies adopted by both state and federal governments up until the 1970s constituted genocide against the Aboriginals. Australia’s official immigration policy prior to 1947 also aimed to keep its population white (MacLeod 2006) and, more recently,
Europeans Vs. Aboriginals : The contact that changes everything Throughout the 1600s to 1900s Native people’s culture has been greatly harmed due to the fact of European contact. Taking over land by killing off food supply thus forcing Aboriginals to sign treaties to destroying their culture by enforcing assimilation. Ever since the Europeans came to Canada they have been nothing good for the First Nations living on the Land. In the 19th Century, government policy changed from government-to-government relations with Aboriginal Nations to attempts to integrate and assimilate. This change was due to a number of factors: the decline of the fur trade; an end to most of the armed conflict between the various new arrivals; and, the desire for more land and resources for the settlers.
There are many such justifications in the literature of the day (Stone 1974, p. 46). Social inequality Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a new problem appeared for white Australia; how to treat children of mixed race. From the perspective of Social Darwinism, full-blooded Aborigines were dismissed as destined for extinction and isolated to ‘stations’, but it was feared that those of mixed race ‘would breed up to become a social menace’ (Beresford & Omaji, p. 34). The Roth Royal Commission (Western Australia, 1905) also reflected this fear. If [they] are left to their own devices under the present state of the law, their future will be one of vagabondism and harlotry … and [they] will spend their lives in gaol or as prostitutes.
Historically Institutional racism plays a major role in hindering the progress of Indigenous people. Institutional racism is addressed in the paper as a key factor in the social disadvantage and consecutive high unemployment rate amongst Indigenous Australians. Australia is privy to a history of wrongdoing against its Indigenous community. Andrew Armitage writes of the British invasion in 1788; ‘the land needed for the colony was obtained by an act of dispossession, assisted in British law by the convenient assumption that Australia was terra nullius (vacant, unoccupied land)’. The invasion was the cause of the ‘land wars’ that ensued and resulted in the massacre and decimation of the Aboriginal people (Armitage, 1995, p. 17).