Aggregating and Disaggregating; two terms rarely used, but concepts that surround our every day lives. The idea of “aggregating” goes hand in hand with the term categorizing. When filling out an application or a survey, many times a person’s race is questioned. If people from different countries who live within different cultures and individually don’t consider themselves to be under one category with each other, then why should this be an issue? Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans and some others from Central and South America get lumped into one group titled “Hispanic,” but many of these people disagree.
“The terms Native American and African American are also aggregate classifications, but in this case they are the result of conquest and enslavement.” This quote is crucial to recognizing the term Aggregation. Looking back in history, we read about Christopher Columbus and his conquest. We learn that he came across “Indians” in many different areas that he found, but we don’t learn why they’re called Indians in the first place. This term comes from the fact that there were various different tribes with many different religions, cultures and languages; this made it easier to discuss “Indians” instead of learning who they really were. Basically the Europeans were just lazy by “lumping” the tribes together, especially since they were well aware of their cultural differences.
“Similarly, the capture, purchase, and forced relocation of Africans, and their experience of forcibly being moved from place to place as personal property, created the category now called African American.” Although these people came from different origins and cultures, they were aggregated by their owners and this term stuck and continues on to present day. The question is, why do we continue to use the terms we use for the people categorized within these terms? Why don’t we change the wrongs created in history to how it should be today? Differences are why diversity is such a big part of our lives today. Looking deeper into history, we realize that the point of view taken from the boat, looking onto land at the “Indians” isn’t just looked at as the European’s perspective. Historically, maybe, but in our society today, that person from to boat is us. We’ve kept this idea of aggregation going and it should be our job to make it right for everyone. Ruth Frankenberg said, “whites are the non defined definers of other people.” Whites hold a great deal of power and that has become the “unspoken norm” of our world.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Zinn CH. 1: A People's History of the U.S.
Christopher Columbus was an all around good person, a hero even! He sailed around the world discovering new places including America. In fact, we even have a day named after him!
We learned many things while growing up through out elementary school up until high school. He was in every history book imagined, but do these books give us the whole story to Columbus’ voyages? In his essay, Zinn mentioned many facts that I wasn’t aware of. I believed that discovering new land was Columbus’ desire, but in reality, all he wanted was gold. Through out his voyages over seas, he came across many different Indian tribes. He made these people his slaves as well as kill them if they weren’t of use to him. He believed that many of them knew where the “gold fields” were so he imprisoned them until they told him. He would use “religious talk” in his entries, but turn around and kill people for no reason. He would promise gold to the people back home, but would come back with nothing but spices and silks. When he had finally realized that there was no gold left, he captured many Indians and brought them to his homeland to sell. After his voyages, little to no Indians were left.
Many writers “refuse to lie” about Christopher Columbus. They speak of his accomplishments, but definitely do not leave out the negative aspects. One writer even describes his killing of Indians as “Genocide.” Zinn argues that although emphasis was put on the heroism of Columbus, it was the “ideological” choice for history books. In his argument, he is not trying to be judgmental or shed harsh feelings toward one of our hero’s, but he feels that we should slowly resurface these negative facts so the truth will eventually come out. I feel that it would be wrong to teach children of the killings and torture Columbus brought upon the Indian people, but later on in school would be a good time to bring some of these facts to life. We need to see that he discovered America and many other places, but it is crucial that we acknowledge that he wasn’t this amazingly perfect person. He made tons of mistakes that I wish I would have known years ago. I’m upset that up until recently I learned that Christopher Columbus did many horrible things to people out of greed and power. In this essay it was stated that, “Total control led to total cruelty” and I believe we should be learning these wrong-doings before it’s too late and our minds are made up.
We learned many things while growing up through out elementary school up until high school. He was in every history book imagined, but do these books give us the whole story to Columbus’ voyages? In his essay, Zinn mentioned many facts that I wasn’t aware of. I believed that discovering new land was Columbus’ desire, but in reality, all he wanted was gold. Through out his voyages over seas, he came across many different Indian tribes. He made these people his slaves as well as kill them if they weren’t of use to him. He believed that many of them knew where the “gold fields” were so he imprisoned them until they told him. He would use “religious talk” in his entries, but turn around and kill people for no reason. He would promise gold to the people back home, but would come back with nothing but spices and silks. When he had finally realized that there was no gold left, he captured many Indians and brought them to his homeland to sell. After his voyages, little to no Indians were left.
Many writers “refuse to lie” about Christopher Columbus. They speak of his accomplishments, but definitely do not leave out the negative aspects. One writer even describes his killing of Indians as “Genocide.” Zinn argues that although emphasis was put on the heroism of Columbus, it was the “ideological” choice for history books. In his argument, he is not trying to be judgmental or shed harsh feelings toward one of our hero’s, but he feels that we should slowly resurface these negative facts so the truth will eventually come out. I feel that it would be wrong to teach children of the killings and torture Columbus brought upon the Indian people, but later on in school would be a good time to bring some of these facts to life. We need to see that he discovered America and many other places, but it is crucial that we acknowledge that he wasn’t this amazingly perfect person. He made tons of mistakes that I wish I would have known years ago. I’m upset that up until recently I learned that Christopher Columbus did many horrible things to people out of greed and power. In this essay it was stated that, “Total control led to total cruelty” and I believe we should be learning these wrong-doings before it’s too late and our minds are made up.
Introduction!
My name is Paula and I’m from a suburb of Detriot, Michigan. Although this class is a general education requirement, I thought it looked pretty interesting. I chose this course to get a different perspective on the various races and ethnicities within our country. When I first looked at the course title, I realized that I haven’t learned much on this topic at all, especially the historic aspects of ethnic studies. I'm excited to get things started!
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