White Supremacy Analysis
It comes as no surprise that an overwhelming majority of the founding fathers held racist sentiments which manifest itself in passing legislation that protected slavery. Racism and white supremacy, as stated by Walton and Smith, “involves the belief in the superiority, inherent or otherwise, of a particular group and that on this basis policies are made to subordinate and control it.” White Supremacy thrives as a result of a strictly enforced subordinate-superordinate relationship between the minority and majority. This ideology plays an integral role in the shaping of race relations, particular interactions between whites and blacks, in the United States. These ways of thinking seem to go against the passionate words of the constitution calling
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They start off by breaking down Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia which gives insight into the blatant white supremacist beliefs the father's of our nation. His writings justified the subjugation of black people under the auspicious that they were intellectually and morally inferior to whites. This not only gave slavery a pass but also allowed for the exclusion of blacks from political spaces and dashed opportunities of a higher quality of life because they were not considered citizens. Walton and Smith also introduce the 3/5 clause, in addition to the constitution that not only devalued the lives of slaves in the south but gave an abundance of power in Congress to their oppressors. This type of legislature made the dominant-submissive relationship the law of the land making any possibility of a relationship based on equality and respect virtually impossible without some form of conflict.
In terms of the objective of this unit, this reading does a decent job at giving examples of intentional power relationships being put into place via legislature. The text also gives some insight into their intentions of establishing a nation based on white supremacist values. With that being said it doesn't go as in-depth as the other reading which is understandable considering it is the introductory text to the
They start off by breaking down Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia which gives insight into the blatant white supremacist beliefs the father's of our nation. His writings justified the subjugation of black people under the auspicious that they were intellectually and morally inferior to whites. This not only gave slavery a pass but also allowed for the exclusion of blacks from political spaces and dashed opportunities of a higher quality of life because they were not considered citizens. Walton and Smith also introduce the 3/5 clause, in addition to the constitution that not only devalued the lives of slaves in the south but gave an abundance of power in Congress to their oppressors. This type of legislature made the dominant-submissive relationship the law of the land making any possibility of a relationship based on equality and respect virtually impossible without some form of conflict.
In terms of the objective of this unit, this reading does a decent job at giving examples of intentional power relationships being put into place via legislature. The text also gives some insight into their intentions of establishing a nation based on white supremacist values. With that being said it doesn't go as in-depth as the other reading which is understandable considering it is the introductory text to the