Race: The Power Of An Illusion Summary

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White Americans also used race to take land from Native Americans by considering them savages and used race as an excuse to fulfil Manifest Destiny. One reason that Native land was taken and balmed on race was because Natives were called savages. One way that white Americans considered Natives as savages were because they were uncivilized due to their culture. “Jefferson felt that, among many people of that time, felt that the Indians were good human material, and the problem with them was not race but culture, that the Indians were savages but they could be civilized.” This is a quote according to the video “Race:The Power of an Illusion” and the transcript of the video at http://newsreel.org/transcripts/race2.htm. With this quote the video is explaining how Native American culture was thought has incorrect and how Natives had to follow what …show more content…
“They thought of Indians as savages who were trying to destroy peaceful settlers coming in, and thought they should be driven out or exterminated” is a quote that come from the same video and transcript, http://newsreel.org/transcripts/race2.htm. This quote from the video proves how people thought that Natives needed to leave from their land as it would affect people who settle in their land. This also proves why whites drove off Natives from their territory and claimed Native land as their own. Another reason that Native land was taken was for whites to fulfil Manifest Destiny. One way that race was involved in the completing Manifest Destiny was to expand and take land from others. Manifest Destiny was the thought of whites that the west was destined for them. “ Most white Americans really believed the West was for them, and for them alone. This was part of a whole philosophy of Manifest Destiny of what impelled westward expansion, ah, throughout the middle part of the 19th