Racial InequalityRacial InequalityColonialism, imperialism, capitalism these are all terms that cannot be separated from the systematic exploitation of groups of people for the exclusive purpose of extracting wealth, land and cheap labor from a group of people for the increased profits of foreign capitalists. This is achieved by undermining the laborers ability to access resources, as well as the ability to sell and retain fair value for their labor through the mechanisms of citizenship and later racism.
The displacement of the British peasantry by the British nobility and the experiences of Native Americans in colonial America are very similar. The British peasant’s occupied land adjacent to that of the nobility, the land was communally used and the peasants were free to use it for agriculture and hunting in exchange for small taxes that supported the lavish lifestyle of the nobility. As the noblemen’s happiness with consuming failed to be enough and his greed grew they devised new ways of creating wealth, mainly through privatizing land to allow the owning of livestock. To own livestock large amounts of land were needed the land that was currently occupied by the peasants. The nobility essentially expelled the peasants from their land and moved in animals so that they could maximize profits. The European peasants were forced to occupy undesirable land that had little value for growing crops or for raising animals. The community lifestyle of the peasants was also diminished by privatization, now things were not shared but owned by individuals and people were less likely to share because more people were living below subsistence needs. In an effort to rationalize this new situation the lords offered the peasants citizenship which granted them access to sell their labor for a wage in the market. Of course the exploitation of the peasants continued by forcing the peasants to work for a less than adequate wage or starve (Philion, lecture).
The American colonizers essentially behaved the same way toward Native Americans as the European nobles did toward the European peasants. Though, the domination of the peasants was through citizenship, which gave peasants rights but also required them to be wage workers. This is much different from the justification for the American colonizers exploitation of the Native Americans, which was racism. Native Americans were unfit to be wage workers and citizenship would not work as an effective means of control. The Europeans had come to the new world is hopes of creating new wealth; they could make new wealth by working and owning the land. Unfortunately there were already people occupying the land they wanted (Nabakov, 263). The Native Americans were much like the European peasants, the lived with community, family, and shared access to the land. This was the driving force in both of their cultures. The natives had no concept ownership and surely no concept of selling their labor for profits, they already had what they needed and what they didn’t have community provided.
Because the native peoples of America were unwilling or “unfit” to participate in the ideologies of capitalism they were viewed by the colonizers as obstacles and holding back the progress. Something needed to be done to remove the Indians from the land so that the land could be more fully exploited by the hand of capitalism for personal gain. The most effective way to control a group of people is to undermine their rights as people; the colonizers used racism to achieve this goal. The Native Americans were depicted as being biologically or inherently inferior to European white settlers, their differing ideologies and cultures were used as support for these claims. This inferiority justified the expulsion of the Native Americans from their homeland into reservations.
The colonization of the Americas was a huge and complex work through the process of enslavement. Native Americans faced not only poverty, suffering, violence, and forced labor of every kind, but also physical and psychological abuse, humiliation, humiliation, and violence from other races to which the native tribes refused to accept their rights. Native Americans have also faced the threat of violence that is common in any society. They faced starvation, poverty, and the loss of any kind of resources for the living; there were a myriad of ways that the Native Americans would receive physical, psychological and spiritual abuse from the oppressor; if anyone could be found to have even the slightest shred of respect for them, then they would be killed. Despite this physical and psychological abuse that is not seen as a legitimate part of this brutal and unjust war, the Native Americans endured a cruel and violent treatment; they are never given any dignity for this treatment.[5] In their time, the Native Americans were victims of cruelty, cruelty, abuse, and fear.[6] The Indian people could never be treated less and they are still denied this basic human right that only people of their faith could ever have.[7] In the end, both for the Native Americans and for the Western peoples they were ultimately killed in the name of civilization.[8]
Despite the atrocities of racism such as genocide, slavery, and internment the genocide of a group of North American Indians is often considered one of the most powerful social forces of history.[9] This dehumanization does not just lead to destruction; it is based upon the assumption that the people of any given people were the only ones who could really understand. The idea that all people are descended from one tribe which has their own special abilities and capabilities and their unique characteristics is a deeply immoral and destructive idea.[10] People who have only a limited ability to understand are also inherently unwilling to participate in the society that is supposed to protect us from racism and its impact.
By making the Native Americans “foreigner” under the influence of alcohol, drugs or any other alcohol, people who have never been given access to alcohol have been enslaved for centuries.[11] Indigenous people have been forced to participate in the economic and social existence of their own country in ways that do not align with the norms of their culture, language, and language. Even their families were told that their ability to live in society depended on their education and economic opportunity. This forced exclusion of their family members, and other minorities they were not allowed to participate in, is why they have continued to live in slavery ever since the first Americas were established many thousands of years ago.[12] While the indigenous people experienced some of the most oppressive conditions on Earth, they were spared from this painful punishment and they were permitted to continue living in an environment consistent with their culture while still enjoying the blessings of their indigenous beliefs and faith in the God-given Creator of the universe. This freedom from violence has also brought them to seek for freedom and peace through the Spirit and other God-given resources.
When the indigenous peoples first discovered their inherent rights to the land and resources for themselves they discovered that the people were
Now that the Native Americans have been stripped of their land and separated from capitalist society in reservations they are expected to perform and progress. There is a major conflict of interest between the Indian nation and the European settlements. The Native Americans are limited by their cultural beliefs and find it difficult to participate in wage labor “the opportunities for work on the reservation continue to appear more limited than the opportunities off the reservation” (Pickering, 18). The ones who do choose to participate are both discriminated against by the whites as well as stigmatized by this own culture because they have abandoned their cultural beliefs and not acted in his tribes or families best interests. At the same time the whites look at the Indians who stay on the reservation and nurture community, as lazy and unproductive only furthering racial tensions. The Native Americans lacked skills needed to obtain well paying jobs and no system of education was in place “the imposition of a negative social identity ultimately restricts Lakotas to limited wage work opportunities…unemployment in the reservation