Prejudice And Racism In Indian Boarding Schools

Yet, there continues to be a slew of prominent individuals who employ cultural racism when discussing the opportunities and success of blacks and Hispanics. Inciting visions of the American Dream, claiming with hard work and perseverance, anyone can be successful in America (Bonilla-Silva 2003). The problem with this is that the United States has managed to convince people that an individual’s hard work is the only determinant of accomplishment in this country. This ideology denies the power of oppression or privilege on any person’s chances for success, and feigns that every individual, regardless of their race has the same access to the opportunities of America. This sort of rise of color-blind thinking in the past few decades implies that
These elements tend to foster pride for individual identity; denying people their identities is not indicative of racial progress, rather it is a step backwards, placing us in America’s rampant tendencies of racism whilst attempting to conceal unequal power structures of America. The denials of identities have led to dehumanizing situations. During the late 19th and early 20th century, America created initiatives for Indian Boarding Schools, which were used for the purpose of forced assimilation of Natives. These schools were used to “kill the Indian, save the Man.”, and impacted the culture, language, and traditions of Natives. This attempt of enforced assimilation is drastic but correlates highly with thought processes of the minimization of race. Colorblindness tends to equate race to something negative with phrases like “I don’t see color, I just see people.”. What these people are saying when they claim colorblindness, is that they see people despite their race. Many people in modern day society claim colorblindness, saying that race is not a characteristic that they see nor is it one they use to form any opinions about another person. White people use the colorblindness argument assuming that seeing race would lead to their demarcation as racist. The fear of discussing topics related to race and ethnicity reinforces the idea that having a racial and ethnic identity other than whiteness is wrong. But rejecting to discuss topics of race and ethnicity proves that to some degree, these people hold prejudices and thoughts about other races they have yet to challenge, and are not willing to critically analyze their position in society which allows them to opt out of discussion on race. By discussing race, it is reaffirmed that there is nothing wrong with having a racial and ethnic identity, rather the problem lies with the structure and makeup of our