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I’m not going to go into detail about what prompted me to write the following excerpt from an email I sent on Thursday. It is in response to someone repeatedly telling my child that Andrew Jackson was not racist. The excerpt:
My specific issue is with your repeated claim that Andrew Jackson was not a racist because it was the 1800s and people weren’t enlightened yet.
I am operating (as I assume you are) under the general definitions of Racism by Merriam-Webster, which are 1: “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race;” and 2: “the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another.”
…today I saw [your] response …“He was not a racist in 1830. This is what society believed and there is nothing you can do or say to change the past…”
Andrew Jackson both participated in and ordered the systemic oppression of racial groups to the social, economical, and political advantage of another group.
He forced the removal of a population based on their race. That is Racism. He also owned slaves. In the case of American slavery, the perceived inferiority of slaves was related to Blackness. That is Racism.
To teach otherwise is problematic at best.
Racism knows no time. People accepting or not accepting Racism does not change the fact that it is Racism; having a name or not having a name for it at the time does not alter that it existed. Nothing negates its existence.
And that behavior was not accepted by all… The abolitionist movement was taking place during the years of Jackson’s presidency. You cannot initiate an abolitionist movement without people recognizing, acknowledging, and comprehending that slavery–which in America was based on race–is wrong. American politicians were aware that Britain was in the process of (ostensibly) abolishing slavery in 1833. People knew in 1830 that slavery and Racism were wrong. They knew.
And they were not the only ones who knew it was wrong. Those being oppressed, those beaten, those on death marches: Do you truly believe that they found it “acceptable” in their time? They, too, were members of society. It’s easy to say something is acceptable when you’re not in the group upon which genocide is being committed.
In Jackson’s 1830 message to Congress, he said that Indian Removal would “relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power.” He was saying, quite clearly, that the removal of one race would advance the nation.
That is, by definition, Racism.
Jackson also claimed that under the “protection” of the Government, the Indians might “cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.” There is no room for doubt: Jackson judged Native Americans as inferior.
That is, by definition, Racism.
Jackson wasn’t just a man of his time–he was a racist of his time. You can’t distance his actions from the term Racism. And doing so suggests that Racism is sometimes okay–so long as enough people find it acceptable during that time period.
Andrew Jackson was a racist racist who racistly participated in Racism.
