Sophia Picozzi Blog Post 9/23

While reading chapter 7 of A People’s History of the United States I couldn’t help but recognize the direct parallels or connections between the removal of Native Americans and both slavery and later housing segregation of African Americans throughout American history. Zinn stated that the main forces behind the removal of the Native Americans were not the poor white frontiersmen, but from big businesses and the federal government collectively. In fact, the frontiersmen and the natives bonded over common problems and lived in friendship and peace. This made me recall in earlier chapters how slaves, white servants, poor whites, and freed slaves formed friendships and even marriages in colonial America and how these relationships were only broken up by the racially charged language of the elites and the federal government. This is a blatant repetition in American history and unfortunately, the poor whites didn’t learn from the past and were used yet again as a pawn to advance the selfish economic desires of the rich. I also noticed parallels between the perseverance and fighting spirit of both the slaves and the Native Americans when they were experiencing brutal conditions. The bravery and determination that these two ostracised groups embodied are almost unbelievable given how horribly they were repeatedly treated by the most powerful agents in the nation.

Another parallel that is worth exploring is the role of “de jure” practices throughout American history. In this chapter, it is clear that the government, and most specifically Presidents Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson, led the initiatives to remove the natives from their own land and try to assimilate them into American society. This is an example of “de jure” practices where the government played an instrumental role in ostracising and obliterating the culture and livelihoods of the Native Americans. The government and the minority that was the Southern elites overpowered the North and the beliefs of whites across America to further their own needs through forced legal action. They basically coerced the nation into agreeing with their views and removing the Native Americans. It should be noted, however, that even though there was backlash against these actions, the American people knowingly let these injustices take place because they weren’t the ones who were mostly affected by it. Racially charged de jure practices can also be seen in housing segregation throughout the 19th and 20th centuries where the government implemented public housing that perpetuated ideals of segregation regardless of the views of the American people. Even in racially integrated communities where whites and blacks lived in harmony, the government implemented segregated housing units while claiming that they were simply maintaining the status quo. They used manipulative language, which is also seen in the removal of the Native Americans, to insist that they were doing the right thing and that their actions were motivated by the overall good of the people, especially the racial minorities. This dangerous language is what aided the government to pereptuate racist idealogies and divisions with “de facto” reforms targeted at both Native Americans and African Americans.