This is the second part in a three-part piece about the idea of American exceptionalism. I will post part III later this week.
I want to come back to the particular narrative, or myth,
that has been particularly strong, and also newsworthy, lately: American
exceptionalism. It is one of those ideas that has become so ingrained that it
has been unwittingly (and occasionally intentionally) perpetuated as propaganda by countless
teachers, politicians, and media personalities. I won’t go into detail here
about where the idea came from, but Foreign
Policy has a nice piece from 2012 recounting the history of both the idea
and the phrase itself, which I would recommend.[i] I
want to briefly discuss the controversy over American exceptionalism brought on
by the new AP US History (APUSH) curriculum, provide some counterexamples to
American exceptionalism, and suggest a more well-rounded view of America.
American exceptionalism says that America is a unique
country and has an obligation to spread its values around the world. It seems
to me that, for most Americans who ascribe to the myth, it includes, in
addition to the mandate to spread its values worldwide, the idea that America
is great because of domestic ideas related to the American Dream as well—as
political sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset says, “liberty, egalitarianism,
individualism, populism, and laissez faire.”[ii] College
Board recently changed its curriculum framework for APUSH to one that led
students to question the American exceptionalism narrative more than the
previous framework had. The new framework is based on themes, which are,
according to the College Board website, Identity; Work, Exchange, and
Technology; Peopling; Politics and Power; America in the World; Environment and
Geography—Physical and Human; and Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture.[iii]
Dr. Ben Carson, now a Republican Presidential candidate, said that this
framework of themes would cause “most people when they finish that course, [to]
be ready to sign up for ISIS.”[iv]
First of all, the course is only a framework and it is up to
individual teachers to flesh out that framework. Second, the accusation brought
by Carson, as well as the Republican National Committee, is that the course
emphasizes the negative aspects of American history while skimming over the
positive ones. If there are enough parts of American history that are negative enough
that any APUSH student would actually
want to sign up for ISIS upon completing the class, then I think that rather
than condemn the class designers, we should take a long hard look in our
country’s historical mirror. In addition to this, if focusing on solely the
negative aspects of American history is unacceptable, then surely focusing
solely on the positives would be equally egregious, right?
I think Dr. Carson’s
words point out a gaping hole in the American mentality. If we are unable to
examine our past ills as a country, how are we going to learn from our
mistakes? Dr. Carson continued in the same speech, saying, “We have got to stop
this silliness. We have to stop crucifying ourselves. Have we made mistakes as
a nation? Of course we have. Why? Because we are people and all people make
mistakes.” I agree that people make mistakes, but I also believe that ignoring
those mistakes would be even worse than making them in the first place.
I think that in light of this fear of self-examination,
Americans need to confront the fear by acknowledging the country’s past
mistakes in order to learn from them. Here are some that I think are especially
important in consideration of their affect on the world now:
1. Treatment of Native Americans
 |
| Below its more famous sections, the Declaration of Independence refers to Native Americans as "the merciless Indian Savages." Photo credit to Mark Charles at wirelesshogan.com |
Christopher Columbus did not discover America. Millions of
people already lived there. While the United States is not alone in the
mistreatment of Native Americans, it is still a dark mark in the history of the
country that cannot be pushed aside (but too often is). In the 1820s Andrew
Jackson defied the Supreme Court and forced multiple tribes off their land in
the southeast and forced them to march to what is now Oklahoma, resulting in
thousands of deaths along the way. Long before the not-so-subtly named Indian
Removal Act that authorized the Trail of Tears, however, the founding fathers
wrote a document that labeled these people as “merciless Indian savages.” Earlier
in this same document is found the much more well-known line, “all men are
created equal.” Even after the Trail of Tears the nation was not done
mistreating those who had occupied their land for centuries: throughout the 19th
century, the United States army carried out a genocide of native tribes in the
Great Plains. The few times where this genocide faltered due to opposition by
those who, understandably, did not want to be killed, were given romanticized names
like “Custer’s Last Stand.” Associated with this series of battles meant to
steal the natives’ land was what is known as the Trail of Broken Treaties.
Lakota chief Red Cloud put it well: “They made us many promises, more than I
can remember, but they kept only one; they promised to take our land, and they
did.”
2. Treatment of African Americans
American failures in this area are innumerable. Beginning
with slavery and continuing through the Jim Crow south, white Americans have,
to this day, maintained an ideological, economic, and social superiority to
non-white Americans, and specifically African Americans. The gradual gains
African Americans have been able to make in the face of white opposition should
be praised, but in most cases the changes achieved were quite small compared to
what was needed, and the changes were always too late. We cannot gloss over the
historical mistreatment of African Americans because the mistreatment and
inequality continues today. Despite Brown
v Board of Education in 1954 (61 years ago!), schools today are still incredibly
segregated. There is still an enormous income gap, and segregation is alive and
well in American cities. In order to continue pressing for change and equality,
the past and present sins of white America must be addressed.
In Part III I will explore two more parts of American
history and conclude with my idea of what American exceptionalism should be.
[ii] I
found this quoted in a Washington Post article about American Exceptionalism: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/09/12/american-exceptionalism-explained
[iii]
For more details on what College Board means by these themes, see the course
framework here: http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf
The description of the themes begins on page 20.
No comments:
Post a Comment