6th Topic - The American Nightmare:

Race Relations
Preamble to the U.S. Declaration of
Independence of 1776, holds as a self-evident
truth “that all men are created equal”…
The problem may be taken through a variety of
angles: here, emphasis is placed on race
discrimination
There are other aspects of the social culture of
the ESW that are extremely important, but
surely, none is more important than this one: to
take but the USA, the topic of racism and anti-
racism represents the worst and the best in
American culture at the same time - the
American Dream and the American Nightmare
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 Race Relations
To begin with…,
“ Race” is a concept with no scientific or
anthropological validity
It is nonetheless a powerful social fact, culturally
acquired and forged by varying circumstances
(historical, economic, political…)
2
 §1. Race Relations in the U.K.
• Developed in the syllabus, pp. 128
et seq.
• Behind the issue of race
discrimination in the English-
speaking world lurks the initial sin
of slavery
• In statistical terms, from the mid-
1700s on, roughly half the captives
taken to the Americas were
transported on board British ships
(in the most appalling conditions)

3
 Atlantic (Triangular) Trade Route
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnV_MTFEGIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NXC4Q_4JVg

4
End of the Slave Trade + Freeing of
Slaves
• The end of the slave trade (enacted
in 1807) and the freeing of slaves
(1833) was the result of a lengthy
process begun in the mid-17th
century
• Abolitionists included Granville
Sharp (1735-1813) or William
Wilberforce (1759-1833)(portrayed
opposite); see also John Newton
(1725-1807), author of Amazing Grace
(at p. 134)
• Countless incidents, such as the
cases of Jonathan Strong (1765),
James Somerset (1772), or the
horrific story of the Zong (1781)
(syllabus, pp. 133-134)

5
 Slaves Fighting for Freedom

• One such slave was Oloudah

Equiano (c. 1745-1797)
Read text, pp. 135-136
• Revolts by the West Indian slaves
themselves (e.g. Haiti and
Toussaint Louverture)
undermined a major argument
made by the British ship-owners,
which was that if Britain
abandoned the slave trade,
France would get all the business

6
 Today
• Westminster addressed racial discrimination in a significant manner with
the Race Relations Act 1976
• Establishment in 1976 of a Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), which
became the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on October
1, 2007, accessible at https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en (visited
November 24, 2022)
• See also the transposition of Council Directive 2000/43 of June 6, 2000,
implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective
of racial or ethnic origin

7
§2. Race Relations in the USA
Syllabus, pp. 137 et seq.
The question is : how did institutionalized racial
segregation last well into the 20th century,
and what is the state of racial segregation
today?
Focus will lie on:
A.African Americans
B.Native Americans

8
 A. African Americans
In terms of developing the historical backdrop to
this issue, we may draw a distinction
between race relations :
a). before the Civil War
b). during the Civil War (1861-65)
c). after the Civil War (1865-1954)
d). contemporary race relations (1954-2021)
e). race relations in 2022

9
 a). Before the Civil War
Developed in the syllabus, pp. 138-144
Bitter history of oppression and exploitation, hatred
and discrimination: Thomas Jefferson, the man who
wrote the egalitarian phrases in the Declaration of
Independence, owned 200 slaves…
The authors of the Federalist Papers (reminder:
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay -
85 essays written to theorize the U.S. Constitution)
elevated the property rights of slave owners over the
human rights of slaves

10
 Starting-Point : Dred Scott
• 1857: the Supreme Court delivers an infamous ruling
on a slave from Missouri - Dred Scott - who had
claimed freedom through the courts
• Second application of judicial review by the U.S.
Supreme Court
• Infamous decision that will have profound effects on
the future of the Supreme Court, the outbreak of the
Civil War, and race relations in the United States
• How did all this begin…?

11
 Origins of Dred Scott
In 1819, Missouri’s application for admission as a
slave State touches off a bitter debate  “Missouri
Compromise” of 1820 : two new States would be
admitted, Missouri and Maine, one slave, the other
free
In furtherance of the Missouri Compromise,
Congress enacts a law providing that slavery should
never exist elsewhere above latitude 36°30’ (north of
the line that forms Missouri’s southern border)(with
the exception of Missouri itself)

12
Missouri Compromise

13
 The Main Character
Dred Scott is a slave who had
been sold to an army
physician, Dr. John Emerson,
who took him north of the
Missouri Compromise line
(where slavery was unlawful),
and then back to Missouri
(where slavery was lawful).
Dr. Emerson then dies…

14
 Precedents
In the past, numerous cases had ruled and it was generally
accepted that once a slave set foot on free soil, he was
emancipated

In 1850, Scott, who had saved some money, tried to buy

his freedom from Dr. Emerson’s widow, who now owned
Scott. She refused and Scott brought suit claiming that,
having lived in a free territory, he was now a free man

15
 1 Problem
st

The first problem was whether even a free African American

could be a “citizen” within the meaning of the Constitution
The question arose because the U.S. Supreme Court was
obliged to dismiss the case for absence of jurisdiction
unless it was “between Citizens of different States”
(“federal question jurisdiction” would only appear in
1875)

16
 2 Problem
nd

The second issue was whether Dred Scott’s claim

to have become a free man by virtue of residence
above 36°30’ north latitude failed because the
Constitution secured the right to hold slaves in the
territories of the United States, thus rendering the
Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
17
Chief Justice Taney

The ruling is delivered

on March 6, 1857. The
Chief Justice is joined
by six other Justices

18
 The Court’s Answer
i). In the most degrading words, the United States
Supreme Court considers that African Americans
were regarded as holding an inferior status when the
Constitution was adopted, and were therefore not
“citizens” entitled to sue in federal court
This alone effectively puts Dred Scott out of court,
and there is no reason for the decision to go further
Chief Justice Taney nevertheless does not stop
here…

19
 Furthermore

ii). The Court adds that Dred Scott had not become free
by virtue of the Missouri Compromise and residence
in the north. Congress had exceeded its constitutional
authority: the Act would deprive the slave holders of
property “without due process of law” in violation of
the Fifth Amendment, if it were given the effect of
freeing slaves taken into the north (akin to taking a
man’s farm or livestock without paying him)

20
 By Way of Summary

The Court held against Scott, ruling (i) that he

could never be a citizen as an African -
American and (ii) to let him free would
deprive his “owner” of his due process rights :
“substantive due process” (5th Amendment),
interpreted by state and federal courts to mean
that property interests cannot be diminished
through regulation

21
 Consequence
A big push towards the Civil War… economic
reasons as well, and notable influence of
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96), author of
the immensely celebrated anti-slavery novel
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (published in 1852)
(developed below)
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 b). Civil War (1861-1865)
• Different landmark events and proclamations
(bloodiest war in American history in terms of
absolute numbers as well as in the proportion of
casualties to the population (roughly 359,000
Union soldiers, 258,000 Confederates)
• Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of
January 1, 1863 (syllabus, p. 145)
• Finally, surrender of Robert E. Lee at
Appomattox on 9 April 1865. Lincoln is
assassinated on 14 April…

23
 c). After the Civil War (1865-
1954)
Syllabus, pp. 146-150
Firstly, mention is to be made of the so-called period of “Reconstruction”:
1865-77  reconstruction legislation

1. 1865: 13th Amendment  prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude

(Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” of 1863 is given full legal effect)

2. 1868: 14th Amendment  protection of citizenship rights and liberties

(effective overruling of the Supreme Court’s interpretation in Dred Scott)

3. 1870: 15th Amendment  right to vote

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 Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
By a 5 to 4 majority, the Supreme
Court recognizes that the
Reconstruction Amendments
were passed with the intent to
grant full equality to the “slave
race”, but it also determines that
the Constitution created few
federal civil rights

25
Consequence
• Narrow interpretation of the
Reconstruction Amendments 
primary protector of individual
rights: the States
• String of cases comes to the
Supreme Court attacking
Reconstruction legislation
• Reconstruction legislation is
dismantled

26
 Meanwhile...
• Economic depression in the
1880s-1890s  opportunities for
everyone diminish
• Radicalism aimed at the blacks 
violence, disfranchisement (poll
taxes, literacy tests…),
segregation, white supremacy
• States start passing segregation
laws

27
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• In Louisiana, a state law of
1890 requires railroad
companies to provide
“equal but separate
accommodation for the
white and colored races”
and bars persons from
occupying railroad cars
other than those to which
their race has been assigned
• Homer Plessy refuses to
move to to the “colored
only” section of the coach

28
 Justice Brown
• Writing for the Supreme Court,
Justice Henry B. Brown
concedes that the object of the
14th Amendment was to
enforce “the absolute equality
of two the races before the law”
• At the same time, however, he
adds, “in the nature of things, it
could not have been intended
to abolish distinctions based
upon color, or to enforce social,
as distinguished from political,
equality”

29
Oxymoron
• In short, the Louisiana
law does not violate the
14th Amendment’s
requirement that all
citizens be afforded
equal protection of the
laws
• “Separate but equal”
doctrine enshrined
• Two objections…

30
 Objections
Unreasonable? Inferiority?

• For Justice Brown, the

exercise by a state of its • For Justice Brown, laws
police power must be requiring separation of the
“reasonable”, and not for races does not suggest that
the annoyance or one race is inferior
oppression of a particular • He considers that inferiority
class arises only because one
• Here, he considers the race chooses to perceive
Louisiana law to be the laws in such a way
reasonable

31
Finally
• Justice Brown disapproves of
the “enforced commingling
of the races” and states that
“if the two races are to meet
upon terms of social
equality, it must be the
result of a voluntary consent
of individuals”

32
One Dissent (Only...)
• John Marshall Harlan argues that the
“Constitution is color-blind, and
neither knows nor tolerates classes
among citizens”
• For Harlan, “[t]he white race deems
itself to be the dominant race in this
country… In respect of civil rights, all
citizens are equal before the law.
The humblest is the peer of the
powerful…”

33
 Jim Crow Laws
Plessy v. Ferguson leads to a
multiplication of “Jim Crow” laws in
the southern states: de jure racial
segregation operates to perpetuate an
entire system of inferior schools,
housing, churches, businesses,
transportation and hotels (even public
restrooms and drinking fountains
were divided into “black”, “white” and
“colored”)

34
Reasons for Change
• Budding campaign to
improve the condition
of racial minorities in
the United States
• Strong relationship
between cultural,
economic, social
political, and legal
change
• Five main reasons

35
 1). Cultural Change
• Beginning of significant protests
in words and music, unmuted
cries against racism (Rosa Parks)
• For Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic
Records), Billie Holiday’s
“Strange Fruit” is a “declaration
of war... The beginning of the
civil rights movement”

36
2). Economic Change

• The “separate but equal”

doctrine had over fifty years
in which to prove itself, and it
had proved to be a farce
(basic financial inefficiency of
having two parallel systems)
• Offensive to American ideals
(Harlan himself considered
that Plessy would, “in time,
prove to be quite as
pernicious as the decision
made by this tribunal in the
Dred Scott Case”)
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 3). Social Change
• The Second World War was
against an overtly racist regime
in Germany
• Nazi war prisoners enjoyed
facilities, such as railway
restaurants and dining-cars,
which black American soldiers
were denied to enter
• Black units were given poor
training, poor equipment, and
were sent to the least promising
parts of the battlefield
• Wartime service and wartime
mobility widened black horizons

38
4). Political Change
• At home (and abroad), the antics
of Senator Joseph McCarthy
were making the name of
America stink in many nostrils
• Racist policies were used to
discredit the USA in the
developing world (and the USA
aspired to be the leader of the
free world)

39
 5). Legal Change
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People: a grassroots-based
civil rights organization,
founded in 1909:
membership rises to
600,000 in 1946
Thurgood Marshall is the
head of the NAACP Legal
and Educational Fund 
strong legal campaign to
end segregation (“Free by
‘63”)

40
Cont’d
• Transformation of SCOTUS

• Appointments made during

President Roosevelt’s
second and third terms
• In particular, appointment of
Earl Warren as Chief Justice
in 1953 (by President
Eisenhower)…

41
 Plessy is Overruled in 1954
Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka:
interesting use of the
“Brandeis brief” by
Marshall
After citing the 14th
amendment, a
unanimous Court
accepts the arguments
of the NAACP that
“separate but equal” is
a contradiction in
terms

42
Judgment
• Chief Justice Earl Warren writes
his opinion in a short, non-
accusatory and non-technical
style so that it can be understood
by laymen and be reprinted in
the public press
• He masses a Court unanimous in
both vote and opinion
• Bottom-line : “We conclude that
in the field of public education
the doctrine of ‘separate but
equal’ has no place”

43
 Reasoning
1. The legislative history of the equal protection clause (14th
Amendment) is consistent with outlawing segregated
education
2. “Today, education is perhaps the most important function of
state and local governments”
3. “To separate [minority children] from others of similar age
and qualifications solely because of their race generates a
feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that
may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be
undone”
4. “Segregation with the sanction of [law] has a tendency to
[retard] the educational and mental development of children
”
44
 Footnote 11
• Footnote 11, placed by Richard Flynn (a Warren Clerk…)

• Reliance on empirical social science data to support the Court’s

conclusion: the controversy is still on
• The controversy has to do with whether the Supreme Court
violated precepts of judicial restraint and traditional
constitutional interpretation or whether the set forth the
theory of a “living Constitution”, under which constitutional
interpretation depends on changing historical circumstances

45
 Cont’d.
The next year, the Supreme Court follows up its
finding with a decree that school desegregation
should begin everywhere “with all deliberate speed”
In so doing, it touches off a revolution… African
American schoolchildren and college-age students
could now claim admission to formerly all-white
institutions

46
Tottering of White Supremacy
• To attack segregation in the schools was to attack it
everywhere
• Brown turned out to be the first blow in a new battle…

• Potent catalyst for ambitious social change both in the

federal courts (Heart of Atlanta Motel, Loving v. Virginia…),
and in Congress (Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights
Act of 1965)

47
d). Contemporary Race Relations:
1954-2021
Different pockets of resistance, most notably in
hotels, motels, restaurants, bars, and universities
(refusal to enroll James Meredith at the University of
Mississippi, injunction for contempt, spectacular riot
which ends with 2 dead and 375 wounded)
Development of “Freedom Rides”, i.e. groups of
young people traveling through the Deep South by
bus, defying segregation laws (escorted by federal
marshals, national guardsmen…)

48
 Kennedy Administration
Initially, African Americans do not come high on
Kennedy’s agenda of priorities (Southern dominated
Congress + Cuban missile crisis of October 1962),
but peaceful demonstrations in Birmingham,
Alabama, in the spring of 1963, change Kennedy’s
priorities: Martin Luther King (1929-1968) puts
Gandhian philosophy to the test (Satyagraha, i.e.
non-violent resistance: convert - not coerce the
wrongdoer) - jail sentences, more riots, bombs,
murders…

49
 Aftermath of Birmingham

Piecemeal victories will not solve the problem.

Kennedy addresses the nation: “We face… a
moral crisis as a country and a people… It is
time to act in Congress, in your state and local
legislative body and, above all, in all of our
daily lives”. A few days later, he sends a
comprehensive civil rights bill to Congress…

50
On the Way to the Civil Rights
Act 1964
One of the hurdles that lies in the way of the enactment is the
threat of a “filibuster”, i.e. a form of obstructionism (to delay or
completely prevent the passage of a bill: Senate Rule 22).
Traditionally, a filibuster consisted in a Senator speaking for as
long as he/she wished on any topic (James Stewart in Frank
Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington…). The filibuster
prevents the Senate from moving on to other business unless the
motion is withdrawn, or unless a supermajority of 3/5ths of the
Senate brings debates to a close by invoking “cloture”
51
To Overcome the Threat…
To stimulate the Senators and Representatives,
Martin Luther King organizes a “March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedoms” on August 28,
1963: huge success with more than 200,000 civil
rights supporters and King’s famous speech, “I have a
dream…” pp. 151-54) : style of a Black Baptist sermon
with Biblical allusions (Psalm 30:5, Isaiah 40:4…), use
of phrases and language from iconic cultural texts
(e.g. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of 1863) , and
anaphora - repetition of a phrase at the beginning of
sentences…

52
 Examples of Anaphora in MLK’s
Speech
• I have a dream (8 times)
• Now is the time (4 times)
• One hundred years later
• We can never be satisfied
• With this faith
• Let freedom ring

53
 King’s Speech
• Masterpiece of rhetoric

• In the wake of the speech and the march, King

is named Man of the Year by Time magazine,
and in 1964, he is awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize (youngest person ever before Malala
Yousafzai in 2014)
54
At the End of the Day…
Two events  thunderbolt
of despair
1. In September 1963, a
church in
Birmingham is
bombed: 4 African
American children are
killed
2. On November 22,
1963, President
Kennedy is
assassinated in Dallas,
Texas
55
 Overcoming Suspicions
The President that takes over
from Kennedy - Lyndon Baines
Johnson - or “LBJ” (a politician
from Texas, … a Southerner) -
takes advantage of the
universal mood of grief and
repentance
LBJ overcomes the suspicions
that liberals, Northerners, and
African Americans entertain of
him.
Kennedy’s legislative program
is hurried onto the statute
book

56
 Civil Rights Act 1964
The bill becomes law on July 2, 1964: in short,
1. it gives the U.S. Attorney-General new powers to
intervene to protect rights of citizens;
2. it spells out the mandate of the “Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission” (EEOC)
as well as that of the “Community Relations
Service” (within the DOJ);
3. it outlaws segregation in public places and in
places of public accommodation (hotels, motels…)
Caveat ! In addition, “Voting Rights Act 1965”
(aimed at giving effect to the 15th Amendment) 
somewhat emptied of its substance in 2013…

57
 The Act is Challenged

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, 379 U.S. 241

(1964)
The appellant in this case refuses access to his motel
to African Americans: he contends that Congress, in
adopting the Civil Rights Act 1964, exceeded its
power to regulate commerce under Article I, Section
8, clause 3 of the Constitution (which we saw in the
Alfonso Lopez case, concerning guns)

58
 Supreme Court’s Answer
• Admittedly, Congress was legislating against
moral wrongs, “[b]ut that fact does not detract
from the overwhelming evidence of the
disruptive effect that racial discrimination has
had on commercial intercourse”
• Chief Justice Earl Warren : somewhat dismayed
• Conclusions : besides underlining the prevalence
of adjudication to put an end to the issue, the
case illustrates the importance of the Commerce
Clause

59
 Voting Rights Act 1965
• Major piece of legislation that
invalidated the use of any test or
device to deny voting rights
• A number of “covered States”
subject to “preclearance”
• In 2013, SCOTUS overturns part
of the Act, in Shelby County v.
Holder

60
Loving v. Virginia (1967)
• In 1967, 16 States (incl. Virginia)
still have “miscegenation laws”,
i.e. laws that prohibit and punish
marriage on the basis of racial
classifications
• SCOTUS finds a violation of the
EP and DP clauses of the 14th
Amendment
• Pursuit of happiness…

61
 e). Race Relations in 2022
• Despite the election of Barack Obama on November 4, 2008
and institutionalized improvements (e.g. the Civil Rights Act
1964 and the attendant establishment of the EEOC and
Community Relations Service), Community racial tensions
are still a characteristic feature of American culture (see
writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates on post-racial USA…)
• Different issues come to mind

62
 1). Tragedies
1. Eric Garner (Staten Island, NY:
July 2014)
2. Michael Brown (Ferguson,
Missouri: August 2014)
3. Walter Scott (North Charleston,
NC: April 2015)
4. Freddie Gray (Baltimore, Md:
April 2015)
5. Sandra Bland (Texas, 2015)
Resurgence of white supremacy…?

63
BLM + White Supremacy

• George Floyd

• Breanna Taylor

• Jacob Blake

• (Kyle Rittenhouse…)

64
2). Affirmative Action
Policies intended to promote access to
employment or education, aimed
at minorities
Arguments for + against
• Arguments for: redress the effects
of current and past discrimination,
and encourage better
representation
• Arguments against:
counterproductive nature of social
reforms by government; argument
made in favor of individual action
to overcome circumstances and
adversity. Intellectual foundations
of these arguments (against) are to
be found in Thomas Sowell, Race
and Economics (1975)

65
 3). Cultural Representations

The American obsession with

race has permeated all
forms of cultural
expression, sometimes to
legitimize racial hierarchies
i. Popular entertainment :
minstrel shows (Al Jolson
wearing blackface and
white gloves in The Jazz
Singer (1927))
ii. D.W. Griffith’s film, The
Birth of a Nation (1915),
romanticizes the slave
South, ridicules
Reconstruction, praises the
KKK

66
3.1). Music
Whether talking about the blues
(Bessie Smith…) or jazz (Louis
Armstrong, Billie Holiday…), 3
items appear undeniable
i). African Americans were sidelined
on the radio, recording and live
performance sectors of the
music industry (King of Swing =
Benny Goodman)(in terms of
industry marketing decisions,
Elvis Presley, a white
Southerner, was presented as
more accessible to the public as
a rock’n’roll singer than Chuck
Berry, pictured opposite)

67
Cont’d.
ii). African American musicians
never received rewards
commensurate with their
contributions: Billie Holiday
(pictured opposite), Charlie
Parker…
iii). One motivation for jazz
musicians to turn to be-bop
music in the 1940s was to
create a music that would not
be appropriated by the whites
in the industry (Dizzie
Gillespie, Theolonius Monk, …)

68
 3.2). Literature

Scores of examples come to mind with respect

to racial segregation, either to (i) portray the
basic issues of slavery and segregation, or to
(ii) assert African American identity

69
 i). Portrayals: Two Examples
i.i. Harriet Beecher Stowe : Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
• Phenomenal success in the United States, France,
Russia, England: inaugurated the best-seller era
and influenced the arguments in the campaign for
the emancipation of English labor that led to the
Reform Act of 1867
• Nevertheless, a controversial novel both in artistic
qualities and content (all the villains of the story
are Northern renegades, emphasis placed on the
unavoidable evils of slavery, and Christlike
forgiveness of the hero’s persecutors)

70
 Portrayals (Cont’d.)
i.ii. Harper Lee (1926-2016), To
Kill a Mockingbird (published
in 1960, Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction in 1961)
Great friend of Truman Capote
and reclusive author (see also
J.D. Salinger, author of The
Catcher in the Rye (1952), and
Thomas Pynchon, author of V
(1963)). Recipient of the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
on November 5, 2007 (highest
civilian honor in the USA)

71
 Portrayals (Cont’d.)

• The story of To Kill a Mockingbird

• The symbolism behind the title…The mockingbird
first appears in Chapter 10 of the novel, when
Atticus tells his children (Jem and Scout) how to use
their shotguns: “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if
you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a
mockingbird” (a mocking bird is neither harmful, nor
destructive. It only makes nice music…)

72
 Symbolism (Cont’d.)
• Symbolic of Tom Robinson and Boo Radley
(kindness, innocence, victims of prejudice;
both are imprisoned and vulnerable)
• Symbolic of Atticus’s defense of Tom
Robinson (song of truth that is ignored)
• Mockery of justice
73
 The Novel’s Main Lesson
Prejudice is the most prominent theme of the novel
(prejudice aimed at race, class, gender, the elderly).
The solution is understanding or “empathy”: if you
attempt to stand in another’s shoes or another’s skin,
you will be able to see their point of view 
understanding and tolerance  justice

74
 ii). Assertions: Two Examples

Scores of examples : Frederick Douglas, Booker T.

Washington, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Maya
Angelou…
ii.i. Phillis Wheatley (1753-84), born in Gambia and sold
as a slave in Boston at the age of 8, begins to write
poetry in her teens. In a letter, Voltaire writes that
Wheatley proved that African Americans could write
poetry…

75
Cont’d.
ii.ii. Ralph Ellison (1914-1994),
The Invisible Man (1952). The
prologue begins as follows, “I
am an invisible man. No, I am
not a spook like those who
haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor
am I one of your Hollywood-
movie ectoplasms. I am a man
of substance, of flesh and bone,
fiber and liquids - and I might
even be said to possess a mind.
I am invisible, understand,
simply because people refuse to
see me”

76
 Cont’d.

The narrator works for a firm that manufactures white

paint for flagpoles (the Liberty Paint Company)

He learns that in order to make white paint, they must

insert a drop of black into the solution. The black is
never seen, but it plays an essential role in
constructing what people see as “white”

77
 Cont’d.

• The incident serves to illustrate the erasure of black

identity from American culture
• Ellison criticized for not writing “protest” works (evading
his responsibilities as a black victim)

78
 Categories of Otherness
The problem of racial segregation is not limited
to “blacks and whites” : it also concerns (i) Native-
Americans (forced removal from their lands,
indiscriminate massacres), (ii) Asian-Americans
(Chinese laborers contracted to complete the
transcontinental railway system, Japanese
detainees during WWII), (iii) the Asian
subcontinent (Indians and Pakistanis in the UK),
(iv) Latin-Americans (violation of the Guadalupe-
Hidalgo Treaty of 1848), (v) Jews (anti-Semitism),
(vi) Arabs and Muslims (current issues)…

79
80
B. Native Americans

81
 Historical Timeline
Distinction between three periods…
a). Discovery of the Americas (1492) - Treaty of
Ghent (1814)
b). Removal policies and the “ trail of tears”
(19th century)
c). Relative revival (end of the 20th century)
82
 a). Discovery of the Americas (1492) - U.S.
Constitution (1787)
Timely subject because of “ Thanksgiving” , a
meeting-point between the Pilgrims and the
Native-Americans
Date: in the USA, the 4th Thursday of November
(in Canada, second Monday of October) - legal
holiday
Legend has it that the Pilgrims set apart a day to
celebrate their first harvest at Plymouth (Ma.) in
1621, in large part to thank God and the local
natives - the Wampanoag - for saving their lives

83
 Fine, But…

• The Thanksgiving celebration aside, the plight of the

Indians has not been very fortunate over the centuries…
• Different statistics are given on p. 156

• Inferior culture ? Not al all. See the writings of a

vehement critic of Spanish cruelty: Bartolomeo de Las
Casas (History of the Indies)

84
Putting the Picture Straight
• Largely a story of conquest,
slavery, and death
• Largely a story of genocide
(pursued by the Puritans, Andrew
Jackson, and countless others…)
• By way of reminder: Jackson
(figured opposite) = ambivalent
historical figure – demagogue,
victor against the British in the
War of 1812 (Battle of New
Orleans of January 8, 1815), but
economic mismanagement
leading to severe economic
depression and ethnic cleansing

85
 Treaty of Ghent (1814)
• Reminder: Treaty primarily aimed at restoring
peace between Great Britain and the United States
(War of 1812: the causes of the war had to do
trade restrictions introduced by GB and the
British practice of “ impressment” , i.e. kidnapping
U.S. sailors to serve in the Royal Navy)
• Incidentally, the Treaty addressed Native
Americans who had long received British military
support

86
 Treaty of Ghent, Article 9
“ The United States of America engage to put an end immediately after the
Ratification of the present Treaty to hostilities with all the Tribes or Nations of
Indians with whom they may be at war at the time of such Ratification, and
forthwith to restore to such Tribes or Nations respectively all the possessions,
rights, and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in one
thousand eight hundred and eleven previous to such hostilities. Provided
always that such Tribes or Nations shall agree to desist from all hostilities
against the United States of America, their Citizens, and Subjects upon the
Ratification of the present Treaty being notified to such Tribes or Nations, and
shall so desist accordingly. […]”

87
b). Removal Policies and the Trail of Tears

• Removal policies  relocation of

Native Americans to lands west
of the Mississippi River :
economic reasons outlined on p.
156
• Begun as of 1803, removal
policies took a disastrous spell
with the Indian Removal Act
signed by President Andrew
Jackson in 1830  great American
land grab +“trail of tears” :
reaction Chief Black Hawk and of
… Alexis de Tocqueville (p. 160)

88
89
90
 Resistance
• In 1867, a Grand Council of
6,000 Tribes (attended by Crazy
Horse, Red Cloud, and Sitting
Bull, figured opposite), pledges to
end further encroachment of their
lands by the whites
• Spring 1876, Sitting Bull
organizes a huge gathering of
Indians on the northern plains
(Black Hills, Montana)

91
Little Big Horn (1876)
• On June 25, 1876, ignoring
warnings, General Custer (a Civil
War hero) and a force of 250
soldiers attack the forces of Sitting
Bull at Little Big Horn (also
known as Custer’s Last Stand)

• Huge defeat : huge American

military disaster  US takes
retaliatory action

92
 Wounded Knee (1890)

• The Massacre of Wounded

Knee : December 29, 1890
• More than 300 men,
women, and children of the
Lakota Sioux are executed
at point blank range

93
 Epilogue

In the opinion of a young newspaper editor

writing for the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer on
January 3, 1891, by the name of L. Frank
Baum…

94
 Cont’d.
“ The Pioneer has before declared that our
only safety depends upon the total
extermination of the Indians. Having
wronged them for centuries, we had better, in
order to protect our civilization, follow it up by
one more wrong and wipe these untamed
and untamable creatures from the face of
the earth. In this lies future safety for our
settlers and the soldiers who are under
incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may
expect future years to be as full of trouble with
the redskins as those have been in the past”

95
 c). Relative Revival
A revival of Indian culture is slowly taking place : a series of
factors (p. 164-168)
1. Law
Indian Civil Rights Act 1968 + major lawsuits: e.g. Cobell v
Salazar (2009) involving mismanagement by the Department
of the Interior of Native American money (extraction of
natural resources generated on Native American lands for
mining, lumber, oil and gas industries…). Class action
involving more than 300,000 people…
The case grinded through the court system for 13 years before
a settlement was reached in December 2009: award of $3.4
billion, hailed as a major victory by the Obama administration

96
 Native Americans and the Law (Cont’d.)

• Usage of “peyote” a hallucinogenic

drug (mescaline) used for sacramental
purposes during religious ceremonies
of the Native American Church, …)
• Prayer ceremonies which last from
dusk to dawn
• The use of peyote by the Native
American Church is protected by the
First Amendment to the Constitution
(Free Exercise Clause)
• Occasional disputes concerning non-
Indian members of this Church: Boyll
v United States (Order of Sept. 3,
1991), 774 F.Supp 133, Internet
available at
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/drg27.ht
m
(visited November 24, 2022)

97
War on Drugs
• “To us in the Southwest, this freedom of
religion has singular significance because it
affects diverse cultures. It is as much of us as
the rain on our hair, the wind on the grass,
and the sun on our faces. It is so naturally a
part of us that when the joy of this beautiful
freedom sings in our souls, we find it hard to
conceive that it could ever be imperiled. Yet,
today, in this land of bright blue skies and
yellow grass, of dusty prairies and beautiful
mesas, and vistas of red earth with walls of
weathered rock, eroded by oceans of time,
the free spirit of the individual once again is
threatened by the arrogance of Government.”

98
2. Economic Revival
Believe it or not, … gambling…
Yup. Gambling…
In 1987, the United States Supreme Court ruled that
federally-recognized tribes could operate
casinos outside state jurisdiction because the
tribes were considered sovereign entities by the
United States and the gaming operation must
not be directly prohibited in that state.
(California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians)
In 1988, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act (IGRA) to establish the rules for
the operation and regulation of Indian gaming
New federal agency, called the National Indian
Gaming Commission (NIGC), whose aim is to to
investigate, audit, review, and approve Indian
gaming ordinances.http://www.nigc.gov
(visited November 24, 2022)

99
 In Figures…
• There are 425 Indian gaming
facilities in the USA
• 233 tribes operate casinos
• Indian gaming operates in 28
states (opposite, Montana)
• Tribes receive $4 of every $10
that Americans wager at casinos
• Indian casinos earned $26.5
billion in 2009 revenues
• Today, Native American casinos
are pushing for the legalization
of … online poker…

100
Trump and Native American Casinos

• Not a happy man…

• As the owner of 3 Atlantic City
casinos (that went belly-up…),
Donald Trump vociferously
opposed the spread of Native
American casinos (allegedly
incapable of stopping
mobsters from dipping into
their gaming proceeds)…

101
 Dakota Pipeline + Oil Companies

• 1,172-mile pipeline intended to carry

570,000 barrels/day of crude from North
Dakota towards refineries in the
Midwest and on US Gulf of Mexico coast
• Protests in Nov.-Dec. 2016 by Native
Americans (Standing Rock Sioux tribe)
on the grounds that it risks polluting the
water supply and would disturb historic
sites (Fort Laramie treaty of 1868)
• Donald Trump on this issue: again, not a
happy man

102
3. Cultural Renaissance
• Publication in 1970 of “Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee”, by Dee Brown
• For Time magazine, "In the last decade or so,
after almost a century of saloon art and horse
operas that romanticized Indian fighters and
white settlers, Americans have been developing
a reasonably acute sense of the injustices and
humiliations suffered by the Indians. But the
details of how the West was won are not really
part of the American consciousness ... Dee
Brown, Western historian and head librarian at
the University of Illinois, now attempts to
balance the account. With the zeal of an IRS
investigator, he audits U.S. history's forgotten
set of books. Compiled from old but rarely
exploited sources plus a fresh look at dusty
Government documents, Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee tallies the broken promises and
treaties, the provocations, massacres,
discriminatory policies and condescending
diplomacy.”

103
 Literature
• Many external portrayals of Native
Americans that range from romanticized
images (The Last of the Mohicans, 1826)
to the ethnographical account: e.g. Tony
Hillerman (1925-2008)(figured opposite)
whose mystery novels essentially depict
the culture of the Navajo and Hopi tribes
in the south-west (vs. the biligaana or
white man)
• With Hillerman, assimilation is seen as
destroying Navajo culture and the crimes
he relates destroy the Navajo idea of
hózhó (beauty, harmony, and
interconnectedness with the natural
world)

104
 Features of Native American
Literature
• Traditional literature was - and still is - primarily oral (many Americans
assume that either American Indians had no literature or that it was not
good). In addition, difficult to write about a native oral culture, especially
in English, the language of the so-called oppressor
• Back to developments on anthropological and popular dimensions of
culture, i.e. no distinction between highbrow and lowbrow art: an organic
part of everyday life, not reserved to an intellectual elite
• Functional dimension, carrying an educational role: instilling beliefs and
values, curing illnesses, increasing the fertility of the fields, galvanizing
morale before battle…

105
 Home-Grown Literature
• Yellow Bird (Cheesquatalawny), or John
Rollin Ridge (a Cherokee)(1827-1867)
• His parents signed the Treaty of New
Echota and “accultured” Yellow Bird into
white society (thinking this was the best
hope for the survival of the Cherokee
people)
• His novel, The Life and Adventures of
Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California
Bandit (1854) condemned American
racism towards Mexicans (the hero
becomes a legendary folk hero to many
beleaguered Spanish-speaking residents)
• Considered to be the first Native
American novel and the first novel written
in California

106
Accounts of Native American
Life
• Simon Pokagon (Potawatomi
Indian)(1830-1899), Queen of the
Woods (1899), considered to be
the first American Indian novel
devoted to Indian life
• The author wrote nostalgically of
the past and lamented the passing
of a “ vanishing” race of the
Indians

107
 Contemporary Literature
• N. Scott Momaday (1934-), House
Made of Dawn (1969): story of a
veteran’s disappointing return to
his reservation after fighting in
WWII
• At the end of the novel (and after
a stay in L.A.), the veteran
smears his body in ashes, helps
his dying grandfather die, and
starts to … run (+ sing)
• Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction in 1969

108
Cinema
As of the 1970s, a host of films
which reconsider Western history
and invert the mythologies of
American frontier history,
usually presented in the the
western genre
• A Man Called Horse (1970)
(Elliot Silverstein)
• Little Big Man (1970)(Arthur
Penn)
• Dances with Wolves (1990)
(Kevin Costner)
• Smoke Signals (1998)(Chris
Eyre)
• The New World (2005)(Terrence
Malick)

109
 Epilogue on Native Americans
• Native American (Heritage) Day = 4th Friday
of November (i.e. Black Friday...): law signed
by President George W. Bush on October 8,
2008
• For many, Native American Heritage Day
falls after a holiday that “omits the murder
and mutilation of natives” and furthermore
“falls on Black Friday, a day of excess and
gluttony and greed and excessive capitalism.
And that’s extremely in poor taste”. See
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/11/2
0/native-american-heritage-day
(visited November 24, 2022)

110
Cont’d.
• Still many issues...

• Besides poverty, the digital

divide, the Keystone XL pipeline,
etc., many ongoing
misunderstandings and or
insults: e.g. President Trump on
“Pocahontas” (Oval Office,

November 27, 2017)

111
 Cont’d.
• Wrong to ignore important differences among Native
Americans: agricultural peoples (Cherokees) and nomadic
hunters (Comanche). Requisite cultural variety...
• Wrong to underestimate traditional Native American cultures
and equally foolish to romanticize them - not merely sylvan
pacifists… Many were heavily conformist, warlike,
chauvinistic, and sexist. Requisite cultural complexity...
• Wrong to focus exclusively on “ people with a plight” , i.e.
paupers and alcoholics, victims and losers. Numerous positive
examples and achievements, present in many walks of life as
corporate litigators, endocrinologists, politicians…

112