Native Americans a Marginalized Population
Native Americans: A Marginalized Population
Vicki Carter
The University of Michigan-Flint
Native Americans: A Marginalized Population
Over the course of time in our country, many groups in our society have experienced being set apart from sustainable communities. Among them are the immigrants, the homeless, the African Americans, those with physical or mental disabilities and the Native Americans. According to McIntosh (1988), “Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ “ (p. 1). Unquestionably, this was the case back in the nineteenth century when the “White” people thought it would be better to have the Native Americans be more like them. Marginalization of the Native Americans is a result of colonialism; they were considered to be ignorant and hostiles by the “White” settlers, forced to live on reservations, lost their culture and values through assimilation and stripped of their rights in society. Segregation, Social Darwinism, and other discriminatory practices have led to the marginalization of Native Americans, resulting in the lowest standard of living in the United States, high rates of alcoholism, and a significant loss of heritage as they are cut off from native rituals and language and encouraged to meld into the cultural expectations of mainstream America.
Research has shown us that the Native Americans were looked down upon by the “White” people and even thought to be savages. Reyhner, the author of the “Indian Assimilation Overview” (2006) says that: The necessity to assimilate Native Americans and other minorities is based on the human characteristic of ethnocentrism. Experts who study cultures, anthropologist, coined the term ethnocentrism to describe how virtually every culture in the world tends to think that their own culture is superior to all other cultures, and that their
Vicki Carter
The University of Michigan-Flint
Native Americans: A Marginalized Population
Over the course of time in our country, many groups in our society have experienced being set apart from sustainable communities. Among them are the immigrants, the homeless, the African Americans, those with physical or mental disabilities and the Native Americans. According to McIntosh (1988), “Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ “ (p. 1). Unquestionably, this was the case back in the nineteenth century when the “White” people thought it would be better to have the Native Americans be more like them. Marginalization of the Native Americans is a result of colonialism; they were considered to be ignorant and hostiles by the “White” settlers, forced to live on reservations, lost their culture and values through assimilation and stripped of their rights in society. Segregation, Social Darwinism, and other discriminatory practices have led to the marginalization of Native Americans, resulting in the lowest standard of living in the United States, high rates of alcoholism, and a significant loss of heritage as they are cut off from native rituals and language and encouraged to meld into the cultural expectations of mainstream America.
Research has shown us that the Native Americans were looked down upon by the “White” people and even thought to be savages. Reyhner, the author of the “Indian Assimilation Overview” (2006) says that: The necessity to assimilate Native Americans and other minorities is based on the human characteristic of ethnocentrism. Experts who study cultures, anthropologist, coined the term ethnocentrism to describe how virtually every culture in the world tends to think that their own culture is superior to all other cultures, and that their
References: Gladwell, (1996). The tipping point. The New Yorker. King, M. L., Jr. (1963). Letter from the Birmingham City Jail (First Version) Retrieved from http://www.afsc.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/4019 Kopetski, L. M. (2000). Letters. Social Worker, 45(1), 94.