My Head Start

 Taking into account the advantages that I myself had in regard to advancing my place in the world is something that I have attempted to do my whole life. From a young age my parents strove to instill a sense of humility and awareness within me, especially in regard to the way I see myself. Being deeply involved in education themselves, they were very aware of the many faults and prejudices that are instilled with the institution. They also never took their own successes for granted, knowing that much of what they have accomplished is attributed to the opportunities their parents, skin color, and economic standing had given them. It is easy to forget these details, and easier still to neglect them, whether through our ignorance or our egos, we are very reluctant to give credit to the many extrinsic factors that spurred us to our achievements. Personally, I have done my best to keep track of them, though I admit to disliking and even neglected the process on several occasions as it can rob oneself of justifiable pride.  Some of the most notable advantages that I have had in life include... Parents with phd's from Ivy League universities who work in education. Individually their salaries exceed  the median household income in America. I was enrolled in private school from 1st through 12th grade, encouraged to read, write, and pushed to practice. They paid for tutors, test practice, drove me to and from extra curricular activities, and invested time and money in my athletic potential. They helped me with the college admissions process, took days off of work to visit colleges with me all over the country, and of course pay my tuition... oh yea, and they also gave me white skin which has its benefits. This list is far from complete, and yet the details listed already exceed those possessed by the majority of Americans, regardless of skin color. These are things that I do my best to never take for granted, and while I still feel pride for the accomplishments I have had in life, I never assume to be deserving of all the credit. Rather than being a source of guilt, these realities have to a great extent steered my direction in life. They have given me a glimpse of why inequality persists from one generation to the next, and have inspired me to allocate my own knowledge, handwork, money, and ability into leveling the playing field for us all.

Editing History

In my reading of the first section of the second chapter, my frustration with the American tendency to edit history for the sake of national pride was fueled. Considering that Ursinus College itself just recently excused us from two days of classes in accordance with the predominantly northeastern tradition of celebrating Columbus Day, it was the first case of historical sugar-coating that came to mind, and one that he later mentions. My first encounter with the watered down version of Americas "discovery" was in second or third grade when I was assigned a book report that covered a book that presented the story of Columbus in much the same way Meet Andrew Jackson did for Tim Wise. To the young Ian Wiggins and likely many others, this was a story of bravery and adventure. It wasn't until many years later that I learned of Columbus's extortion, enslavement, murder and displacement of the Native American peoples. While there are countless examples of this bastardized history in nearly all levels of education, the true story of Columbus was particularly jarring in its implication. The most egregious of these is its utter disregard for the native inhabitants not only in regard to their treatment, but in the subtle manner with which it reinforces the notion of manifest destiny. The word "discovered" and how it has become associated with Columbus is sufficient proof in itself to this claim. Not only was the land inhabited prior to his arrival, he was not the first foreigner to reach American shores. To say that Columbus discovered America is about as accurate as me wondering into a strangers backyard and claiming to have discovered it, and then when they protest my trespassing I kill them and take their house as my own. I understand why schools and other institutions allow for history to be bastardized in this way, they want the stories to be free of controversy, to protect the American image, and to be child appropriate. Unfortunately, I think the cons profoundly outweigh the pros under such an approach. As the old saying goes, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it"  and if we cant praise the accomplishments and simultaneously reflect upon the faults of our ancestors then we have failed our students. Students who, like so many before them, will grow up into ignorant, close minded, and profoundly biased adults. As for now, as Wise points out, criticism of Columbus, the founding fathers, and other prominent historical players in the building of the modern United States leaves you branded as unpatriotic. This is truly the most shameful phenomenon of all in regard to the rewriting of American history. It actively discourages learning from the past, and thus profoundly corrupts the students view of the past, present and future. 

Looking back

In reading the first section of Tim Wise's, White Like Me, I got to thinking about my own genes and how they resulted in me, the 6ft 4in white man from central New Jersey. I knew that my fathers side of the family were primarily german jews, who migrated to America late in the 19th century. If Wiggins doesn't strike you as a particularly German or Jewish last name, thats because it isn't, Wiggins is in fact my fathers, step fathers last name. My grandfather by blood died in a plane crash when my dad was very young, and so when his mother remarried, he acquired a new last name (Wiggins) which has English roots. On my mothers, mothers side, I have ancestors dating all the way back in American history to the May Flower, prior to that however little is known, just that they hailed from Scotland and England. Following their arrival, they took up residents in New England and stayed put for the most part. On her fathers side little is known except that they were ranchers and farmers in the midwest, relatively poor, and that their are traces of Cherokee blood mixed in with what my grandfathers guesses was predominantly Irish heritage.

This is the condensed version of what I knew prior to last night when I gave my mom and call and decided to ask her a question which I was sure she had looked into (she being the one of had pieced together almost everything there is to know about my ancestors). I asked whether or not our family had owned slaves, a question which I was surprised didn't catch her off guard in the least bit. She Started with my fathers family and explained that since his ancestors by blood had migrated from Germany after the civil war, they had not owned, bought, or sold any slaves in the United States, anything that happened in Germany was beyond her knowledge. Her family however had arrived with the first settlers, and therefore were in fact directly involved in American slavery. On her fathers side, little is know, but judging from what few records have survived and the simple fact of where they lived, it is likely that they owned slaves at one point. My mother added that if they did, it was no more than one or two because her fathers side of the family had little in the way of wealth. Her mothers side of the family on the other hand were of upper middle class standing. That being said, there is no evidence to her knowledge that they did in fact own slaves, which is to an extent supported by the fact that they never strayed far from the New England area. That being said, she does know for certain that two of her mothers relatives were sea captains of moderate success in the time before the slave trade was outlawed.  This has lead her to believe that they were involved (at least) in the transportation of slaves, this however has yet to be investigated in the ports logs.

I have to say that I am not surprised in the least to discover these things, my ancestors have been in America long before it even became its own country and slavery was a huge part of what spurred its swift growth. While I wish that I could say they were not implicated in such a barbaric, and morally bankrupt institution, I don't feel the slightest bit of residual guilt or fault. Their choices are not mine, in the same way their culture, society, economy, and morals and not mine. The only thing I regret is that slavery existed at all, that being said, it makes perfect sense to me why and how it did. To be burdened by such distant history is pointless and irrelevant, what is important is that I remember it, learn from it, and use it to shape the future of the world as a whole.

The Struggle for Cultural Identity

"The familiar saying is right: the USA has always been a nation of immigrants. What the saying leaves out – in addition to the fact that there were people already here to greet the immigrants – is that our idea of the immigrant has always been racialized, and in ways that explicitly shaped public policy for most of the nation’s history."
Taylor, Paul C. (2013-04-17). Race: A Philosophical Introduction (Kindle Locations 4449-4452). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Speaking as someone who actually paid attention in history class as a boy and also someone who has seen first hand the notorious anti-immigration racism of the midwest and south, it doesn't seem to me that "the USA has always been a nation of immigrants" is a familiar enough saying... let alone one that is understood. That being said, I think it goes without saying that immigration has almost always been a racialized issue, from the Italians to the Irish, Japanese to Mexicans, the United States brief history is rife with racially based exclusionary measures. What the above quote got me thinking about, is why? To be more specific, why has a nation of immigrants gone to such extreme lengths to curb further immigration? what is the cause of this hypocrisy? My first guess is that it is directly connected to the Americans struggle to find a national identity. Many Americans whose families have been in the states for several generations have lost touch with their ancestral roots, in turn they have attached themselves to the newer and more obscure American identity. I say obscure because America is so massive and has so many sub cultures within it that unity is rarely found, and when it is, say in the celebration of Americans independence, many still don't feel any strong emotional attachment to the celebration because their ancestors didn't contribute to the cause. A possible consequence of this is that the Americans whose families have been in the country for multiple generations, feel a need to over compensate for the lack of national pride and unity. They have no lingering culture to fall back on and so the go to great lengths to formulate a new one, and like must cultures, they subsequently reject change. To them, the old America is this utopian legend, where jobs, gold, and opportunities fell from the Christian heavens and the white man reigned supreme. So when they see the economy tanking, jobs drying up, and American pride vanishing, they point their fingers at everyone except themselves. This makes sense for two reasons, they need a scapegoat, and they don't want to tarnish the nations name by taking responsibly. The result is that the unsuspecting, low class, immigrant is deemed the destroyer, not the model of the American dream, as if those who got here first are the only ones entitled to it. This is much easier then blaming big business for shipping jobs over seas, or blaming crime and lack of cultural assimilation on racial projects and profoundly underfunded schools/communities. More than anything, the Americans racialized treatment of immigration is a prime example of nearly every American stereotype, ignorance, fear, laziness, arrogance, and of course, unnecessary use of force.