This is just a shortlist, but I’m guessing you get my point. North America and the United States began life as a continent/country that did not recognize the contributions or equality of people who looked different, dressed differently, worshipped differently, or loved differently than the European majority. This is the first iteration of Muslim Ban. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. (Keep in mind, we were also at war with Germany and Italy and German-American and Italian-American citizens were NOT interred)ġ958 - Mildred Loving, a woman of color, and her white husband Richard Loving were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other.ġ969 - New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar launching a storm of protests demanding gay rights.Ģ017 - Shortly after taking office President Donald Trump issues an executive order which bans nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. It was the first immigration law that excluded an entire ethnic group and excluded them from eligibility for United States citizenship.ġ942 - people of Japanese ancestry were forced into relocation and incarceration in concentration camps in the western interior of the country. This continent was established and has continued to be run predominately by those of European descent, discriminating and taking advantage of people of color and other minority groups. A short list of examples:ġ492 - Columbus “discovers” the new world although there were already indigenous people living here.ġ542 - Vázquez de Coronado caused a large loss of life among the Puebloans, both from the battles he fought with them in the Tiguex War and from the demands for food and clothing that he levied on their fragile economies.ġ619 - First African slaves were brought to America to provide labor in the cotton and tobacco fields.ġ776 - The words “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” are written by Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia slave owner.ġ787 - Blacks are codified as property in the Constitution of the United States and are counted as ⅗ of a person for the purpose of the census and representation in government.ġ861 - The Confederate States of America succeed from the US in order to maintain their right to hold other human beings as property to support their plantation society.ġ882 - The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed preventing Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. and that's what makes him a subject that we can't really, I think, do without.During all of the turmoil of the past week, I have heard many commentators say things like “our society of broken.” I would argue that our society isn’t broken, it is working in just the way that it was established. I don't think there's anybody in the founding generation who embodies that so well. "A lot of Jefferson's contradictions are alive in us. ![]() "The fascinating thing about Jefferson is that he, in some ways, embodies the country," she says. And yet these very same words - affirming the equality and dignity of all - were written by a man who owned hundreds of slaves, and fathered six children by an enslaved woman, Sally Hemings.įor historian Annette Gordon-Reed, the contradictions embedded in Jefferson's life are "a window into us, into who we are as Americans." ![]() "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." These words, penned by Thomas Jefferson more than 240 years ago, continue to inspire many Americans. Thomas Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves, yet he also wrote that "all men are created equal." How did he square the contradictions between his values and his everyday life?
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