Chapter 8: Educational Racism: Native Americans

-Educational racism:  the citizenship laws, education laws, and court rulings that are prejudicial towards a particular group of students. (pg. 167)

-Deculturalization: educational process of destroying a people's culture and replacing it with a new culture. (pg. 168)

-Educators forbade the speaking of non-English languages, and forced students to learn an Anglo-American-centered curriculum. (pg. 169)

-Educational programs were established by the federal government and were designed to deculturalize the tribes and then "civilize" them by attempting to destroy Native American cultures, languages and religion. (pg. 169)

-1879- The first off-reservation boarding school was established.  By 1905, twenty-five non-reservation boarding schools opened across the country. (pg. 173).

-Patriotism was forced on Native American students- they were forced to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag, celebrate U.S holidays and heroes, read textbooks reflecting White dominant culture with no reference

-The U.S. government also distributed tribal property to individual Native Americans with the intention of instilling capitalistic values of white civilization.  Tribal ownership was viewed as a form of socialism that was antithetical to the values of white American society.  Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in 1881, Hiram Price said that attempts to civilize Native Americans needed to teach the necessity of labor.  This could only be accomplished when individual Indians were made responsible for their own economic welfare.  This could be done by allotting Indians a "certain number of acres of land which they may call their own."  (pg. 173)

-High school was thought to be "fairly saturated with moral ideas, fear of God, and respect for the rights of others; love of truth and fidelity to duty; personal purity, philanthropy, and patriotism." (pg. 175).

-The Meriam Report of 1928 began the process that ended this massive educational effort to change the language and culture to an entire people.  The report argued that routine and discipline of Indian schools destroyed initiative and independence.  There needed to be a change in governmental attitude.  American Indians would attempt to rebuild what the federal government had destroyed. 

Asian Americans: Ch. 8

-“The hostility of Anglo-Americans was a rude surprise to Asian immigrants.  Similar to other immigrants, they hoped to make their fortune in the United States and either return to their homelands or build a home in their new country.”  Pg. 178

-“The educational experiences of Asian Americans have paralleled their public image in the United States.  By public image, I mean the representation of Asian Americans that appears in the popular press and media that is dominated by European Americans.  In his study of the portrayal of Asian Americans in U.S. popular culture, Robert Lee identified five major images of Asians-‘the coolie, the deviant, the yellow peril, the model minority, and the gook’.”   (not included is the exotic and submissive stereotype that is prevalent to Asian women).  “As he points out, each image, including that of ‘model minority’ has presented some threat to ‘the American national family’.” Pg. 184

-“The San Francisco school district justified segregation with the public statement, ‘not only for the purpose of relieving the congestion at present prevailing in our schools, but also for the higher end that our children should not be placed in any position where their youthful impression may be affected by association with pupils of the ‘Mongolian race.’ In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education established a separate school for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children.”  Pg. 187

-“Before World War II, the negative images of Asians in European American minds contributed to continual struggle by Asian Americans for equal educational opportunity.  For instance, the California school code of 1872 stated: ‘Every school, unless otherwise provided by special statute, must be opened for the admission of all white children [the emphasis is mine] between five and twenty-one years residing in a district…’  In other words, the 1872 code made no provisions for the education of Asian Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans.  California state leaders deliberately denied these populations access to public schools.”   Pg.185.

-“Local white leaders began criticizing the Japanese-language schools for hindering the ‘Americanization’ of Japanese American children.  This criticism was prompted by the general ‘100 percent Americanism’ campaign that was gripping all schools in the United States and its territories, and the growing militancy of Japanese American workers.  A Territorial Government report in 1919 declared, ‘All Americans must be taught to read and write and think in one language; this is a primary condition to that growth which all nations expect of us and which we demand of ourselves.’  “ Pg.  187

-“Why were Japanese American citizens interred in concentration camps and not the descendants of other U.S. enemies, such as German and Italian Americans?  Three lawyers working for the U.S. Justice Department argued that unlike German and Italian Americans, ‘the Occidental eye cannot rapidly distinguish one Japanese resident from another.’  Adding to the demands to place Japanese citizens in concentration camps were the conclusions of the U.S. government report on the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which called the Japanese an ‘enemy race’ and claimed that despite many generations in the United States their ‘racial affinities [were] not severed by migration.’  The report recommended the removal of all people of Japanese ancestry from coastal areas of the United States.”  Pg. 183-4.

African Americans Ch. 10

Quotes from The American School:
p.215:
“In the South, segregated education was justified as providing an inexpensive source of workers for industrialization and the maintenance of agriculture…This relationship between segregated schools and economic exploitation was based on several factors. One factor was that segregated schools provided an inferior (as compared to schools serving European Americans) education. This made it difficult for economically exploited groups to use education as a means of economic advancement. The second factor was that many segregated students were taught to believe that they were inferior, and therefore, many accepted an inferior economic status…The third factor was that segregated education tended to emphasize the inculcation of habits and values required for menial employment. And last, segregated education tended to reinforce among some European Americans a belief in their own superiority. This feeling of superiority helped to rationalize economic exploitation.”

P.226
“The second crusade [1910-1930s] involved the expansion of segregated schools for African American children paid for by a combination of personal donations of time and money by black citizens, donations by private foundations, and government money…What is important to note about the second crusade is that Southern black citizens had to pay directly from their own income to build schools for their children, while, at the same time, they paid local and state taxes, which went primarily to support white segregated schools.”

Hispanic/Latino Americans

Mexican Americans- Quotes from Spring

“The struggle over inclusion of Mexican Americans and other Hispanic Americans as full citizens of the United States became a serious issue in 1848 with the ending of the Mexican-American War and the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago.  During treaty negotiations, the Mexican government demanded that Mexicans remaining in their lost territories become US citizens.  This demand created a dilemma for US leaders.”  P. 193

“The idea of manifest destiny combined with scorn for La Raza fueled the increasing friction between the United States and Mexico.  In the minds of some Anglo-Americans, the United States was destined to rule the continent because of its Protestant culture and republican form of government.  In the minds of many U.S. citizens, Mexico stood for Catholicism and feudalism.” P.194

“In some places, such as Santa Barbara, California, local Mexican leaders were able to bypass the state requirement on teaching English and were able to maintain a bilingual public school.  But in most places, bilingual instruction could be had only through schools operated by the Catholic Church.” P. 201

“One of the keys to understanding the continuing patterns of racism and segregation is the fact that the immigration of Mexicans was encouraged by U.S. farmers- because Mexicans were an inexpensive source of labor in the booming agricultural regions of Texas and California.” P. 201

“On the one hand, farmers did not want Mexican children to go to school- because school attendance mean that they were not available for farm work.  On the other hand, many public officials wanted Mexican children in school so that they could be ‘Americanized.’” P. 201

“An important element in the Americanization of Mexican schoolchildren, as it was for Indians, was eliminating the speaking of their native language.  Educators argued that learning English was essential to assimilation and the creation of a unified nation.” P. 203

Hispanic/Latino Americans Continued

Puerto Rican Americans

“Puerto Rico became a colony of the United States in 1898 at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War.” P. 196

“The Jones Act [1917] obligated Puerto Rican Americans to serve in the US military while denying them the right to vote in national elections.” P.198

“And, just as U.S. and state educational policies attempted to strip Indians of their languages and cultures, US educational policy in Puerto Rico attempted to replace Spanish with English as the majority language and to introduce children to the dominant US culture.” P. 206

Summary List of Americanization Policies in Public Schools in Puerto Rico (P. 207)

1. Required celebration of US patriotic holidays, such as the Fourth of July, which had not been celebrated prior to conquest

2. Patriotic exercises designed to create allegiance to the United States, such as pledging allegiance to the US flag and studying important historical figures of US history

3. Replacing local curricula and textbooks with those reflecting the way of life in the United States

4. Attempts to expel teachers and student who engaged in anti-United States activities

5. Attempts to use teachers from the United States as opposed to local teachers

6. Introduction of organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America, to promote allegiance to the United States

7. Attempts to replace Spanish with English as the language of instruction

“The problem was the assumption that US institutions, customs, and beliefs were the best in the world and that they should be imposed.  The attempt to help was accompanied by and attitude of moral and cultural superiority.” P. 208