West Vs Civilization

The U.S. is a country founded on certain ideologies, which have shaped its structures and lasted to the present day. Two main ideological constructs that have emerged are “The West” and “Civilization”. These concepts reflect how the U.S. believes it is one of the most “civilized” societies, especially compared to others. The U.S. believes it promotes the best form of society and curates those who make up members and who may participate closely. This belief drives the nation to want to civilize others, but keep those who are different at arm's length at the same time. In doing so, racist and classist dimensions have defined the ideologies. Racial and classist ideals define the ideological constructions of “The West” and “Civilization” as ideological
Native Americans as a culture are worthless and comparable to the “beasts” that also inhabit North America, they do not represent civilization and therefore do not have the right to the lands they have been inhabiting. This racist ideal permeated through all forms of justification and defined how Roosevelt applied the ideologies of “The West” and “Civilization”. Another example of how racist and classist dimensions define the ideological constructions of “The West” and “Civilization” is seen in Henry Cabot Lodge’s “Speech on a Literacy Test for Immigrants”. At this time, the Senate was debating literacy tests for immigrants, and Henry Lodge wanted the U.S. to implement them as he saw the tests as a way to preserve aspects of American citizenship. To Lodge, some of the immigrants coming into America did not fit under the ideology of “The West” and “Civilization” and were unassimilable to American culture. The literacy tests would target specific races who did not closely resemble what Lodge viewed as the correct form of an Assimilable American. Those who are from countries whose race is closely related to English-speaking
In E.B. Du Bois', The Souls of Black Folk, examines the effects of the ideologies of “The West” and “Civilization” through a collection of essays advocating for equality for African Americans—a struggle that existed long before the founding of the United States. Racism and classism became embedded in the nation's foundational beliefs, shaping the policies and judgments of its founders and leaders. With racism and classism established within the values of the U.S., they defined the ideologies such as “The West” and “Civilization”. In these ideologies, the correct form of a person is a wealthy white American of specific descent. This idea of having the correct form of a person has marginalized those who do not fit within the image, especially African Americans. In Du Bois's first essay, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, Du Bois conveys how the history of blackness is complicated in how African Americans are a group of people who have represented a “problem” since the beginning of the United States. As African Americans do not fit into the image of a proper citizen, they are always compared through the lens of