1. FINAL EXAM
America: The Racist Nation
HIS 212-01 – Thomas Jackson
Christian Luke Price
5/6/2013
A quickanalysisof American’sviewstowardsrace andhow itdirectlycorrespondswiththeirforeign
policies.

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According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, race is “a category of humankind that
shares certain distinctive physical traits.” It is common knowledge that there are several different
races throughout this world. But how can something so simple and common, be the reason for so
many problems within the world? One country in particular has a very vibrant past involving
problems between races, The United States. From the Civil War, to the World Wars and all the
way to the present, “race” has been involved in almost all major events these last hundred years
of American history. Although some may say that America has made great improvement
regarding racism, what if there was no improvement? America has not become less racist, just
shifted their racism elsewhere, beginning within America during the Civil War and it slowly
worked its way towards countries and races outside American borders through the World Wars
to the present. The study of this changing of views can greatly enlighten how something as
simple as race can affect the policies of inclusion and exclusion within American history.
The Civil War was a terrible calamity that completely shifted America and its future. The
war was a calamity greatly focused on race, or more specifically, slavery. The nation literally
divided itself for the idea of white supremacy over blacks, which essentially is one race fighting
to control another. Some historians believe that “the struggle was an inevitable clash of
irreconcilable cultures that spurred the nation to cleanse itself, at last, of slavery.”i And with the
Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, the country was cleansed and
slavery came to an end in America. But to what extent was the country cleansed? Within a short
while there were already moments of progression in African American lives. Ulysses S. Houston

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and James Porter, both African Americans, would be elected to Georgian legislature within a
few years after the Civil War.ii This was a huge improvement for African Americans; however,
this was only a win in political terms, and barely that since they had yet to earn the right to vote.
The Thirteenth Amendment had guaranteed their freedom but the attitudes of the rest of
Americans were another problem entirely separate from slavery. Within a few years there were
sharecropping contracts floating around the South binding blacks with white farm owners once
again. Blacks would have to sign these contracts with an X, since they were illiterate, and that is
how their contract owners wanted it to be. One sharecropping contract from 1866, just one year
after the war ended, said “We furthermore bind ourselves that we will obey the orders of said
Ross in all things in carrying out and managing said crop for said year and be docked for
disobedience.” iii There is no telling who “Ross” was but this one sentence gives a very clear
picture that conditions were not much different from the blacks’ previous situations. Slavery had
been abolished and the blacks were “free”, but they were not free from whites working to keep
them under lock and key. Instead of helping African Americans, whites would use whatever they
could to make sure they stayed on top, with illiteracy just being a few of their weapons.
Whites and their weapons aside, there are several instances showing that not only were
farm owners being a hindrance for African Americans, the government also proved a deterrent
for black rights. General William T. Sherman, in January of 1865, issued Field Order 15 which
gave nearly 40,000 freed slaves a place a live. This would be known as “Sherman land,”
however, it was short lived as in the summer of 1865 President Andrew Johnson would take

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back all the land that had been given to the freed slaves.iv With the former slaves having had
their only refuge taken away they had nowhere to go, so sharecropping became almost the only
option for most. It is obvious that the priority for Andrew Johnson was that of Reconstruction,
not of the recently freed slaves’ conditions. Some would say that Johnson was shaming his
predecessor, Abraham Lincoln, by going against what Lincoln had fought so hard to gain,
abolition of slavery. Paul Escott thinks differently stating “Even at the end of the Civil War,
there was no doubt that Lincoln would not allow the policy of abolition to impede the restoration
of the Union.”v This would not convince many people that the slavery-hating Lincoln’s main
goal was not that of abolition, but restoration of the Union. This may be true; however, Escott
also stated that “Lincoln reassured his Confederate interlocutors that he ardently supported
compensating slaveholders for their losses when emancipation eventually took place.”vi With this
in mind, it is easy to conclude that perhaps abolition actually was just a means for Lincoln to
reunite the Union. This would make Andrew Johnson a faithful follower of his predecessor, with
having the stability of the country being the main priority. Although, to keep one’s feelings
towards Lincoln positive, it can be assumed that he would not be pleased with Johnson taking
away land and leaving slaves with no home. Johnson’s actions may not have been intentionally
trying to hurt blacks but it can be seen that it did much more damage than he intended. The
damage caused would be spurred from Johnson not discouraging whites from treating blacks
poorly. With the President taking away the blacks’ land, why would they not just fall in line and
join his cause? John David Smith wrote “If whites were the blacks’ real friends… they would
encourage, not discourage, granting them civil and political rights.”vii

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The political rights of the African Americans quickly came into focus with the Civil
Rights Bill in 1866, which would lead toward the Fourteenth Amendment. This Amendment
would grant citizenship to all born in the United States. This of course would not settle well with
a lot of people, mainly Democrats. Not a single Democrat voted for the passing of the Fourteenth
Amendment while only four Republicans voted against it.viii This might shock some people that
may know anything about the state of political parties in America today. The Democrats would
continue to surprise people of today with the motto the Democratic candidates from the 1968
election was publicizing, “This is a White Man’s Country; Let White Men Rule.”ix Even with the
fourteenth amendment in affect, the blacks cannot catch a break from the racism engrained in
society. Racism would continue to grow and make way for organizations such as the Ku Klux
Klan, or KKK. This terrorist organization would commit horrible crimes against both blacks and
whites. To make a point, these “respectable citizens”x, as they liked to be called, would go so far
as to hurt or even kill their own race. This terrible organization would kill and terrorize for years
before finally, in 1870 and 1871, Congress would pass Enforcement Acts outlawing terrorist
societies, putting an end to the KKK. “In 1872, for the first time since the Civil War, peace
reigned in most of the former Confederacy.”xi It is easy to see the blatant racism that plagued this
time period and how it affected thousands of lives. But how did Americans’ view towards race
begin to change as they moved into the twentieth century and put those times behind them?
America may have acquired a time of peace during 1872 but now America began to
move towards the next major surge of racism within the United States, the World Wars. This is

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when racism begins its slow shift from racism within America to racism outside America. Before
this point the only racism one would identify in the United States was most likely racism towards
African Americans. Which is understandable, there was still much racism towards blacks in the
Post-Civil War and Pre-World War I era. African Americans had gained their freedom and, as
records show, some had entered into show business, such as plays and theater. “African
American performers found more opportunity to occupy the stage, but restricted by the warped
perceptions of white audiences, black performers were pressured to perform the same kinds of
minstrel stereotypes their white predecessors had invented.”xii This gives a small glimpse of
African American life during the pre-World War era and the years leading up to it. During this
time Progressivism, a movement spurred by leaders of the time to further American industry and
patriotism, engrossed Americans and replaced the old movement of Reconstruction.
Progressivism brought around a lot of changes for America, but one in particular was their views
towards immigrants. Immigration went haywire during this time with California leading race
with Asian immigrants. In 1890, “nearly 1,500 Japanese resided [in California]…by 1910
however, there were over 40,000, and by 1920, the figure rose to over 70,000.”xiii “3.5 million
newcomers entered the United States”xiv and this surge would lead to what contemporaries called
the “race problem.”xv This is when America’s views towards race first began to shift towards
other countries outside America’s borders. Americans began to believe they were being “overrun
by foreigners who ‘have no true appreciation of the meaning of liberty’ and therefore posed a
danger to democratic government”xvi To fight this war against immigrants the term
“Americanization” came to fruition and began to dictate the way people behaved towards

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foreigners. Americanization’s goal was to coach foreigners in the ways of being a good loyal
American. This ideal would be taken up by many of the higher ups in the American government,
including the future President Woodrow Wilson. The President stated once that people “‘born
under foreign flags’ were guilty of ‘disloyalty… and must be absolutely crushed.’”xvii
This was just the beginning of this strict Americanization and relations with outside races
would only get worse after World War I began. What the idea of Americanization began
implanting in the minds of Americans was that every other race was not good enough and to
better themselves, they must become more American. This is an improvement from the
American’s first strategy towards a different race, enslave them and make them do what they
want. Now they are at least working with them to change the way they led their life, to make
them less like where they came from. This progression of race relation is distinctly different and
shows a negative look towards foreign races which affected the way America treated races inside
their own country. Teddy Roosevelt, another Progressive President, was quoted saying “It has
recently been announced that the Russian Government is to rent a house in New York as a
national centre to be Russian in faith and patriotism, to foster the Russian language and keep
alive the national feeling in immigrants who come hither. All of this is utterly antagonistic to
proper American sentiment…”xviii Just more pro-American talk that is furthering the elitism that
Americanization brewed. It would even continue to where one Lewis Terman would introduce
the idea of an “IQ” (intelligence quotient), to accurately depict just how much smarter
Americans were than other nationalities. Although this may not have been his initial intention for
an IQ test, it was quickly used for that purpose. IQ tests were taken by army recruits and

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appeared to “confirm scientifically that blacks and new immigrants stood far below native white
Protestants on the IQ scale.”xix With this elitism stamped into Americans heads, it is no wonder
that once World War I began Asian immigrants would not become the only ones receiving
prejudice. Before the war German-Americans went about life just like any other American,
however, after the war people began finding any way to discriminate German culture. They even
went as far as the change words such as “hamburger” and “sauerkraut” to “liberty sandwich” and
“liberty cabbage.”xx Which would upset anyone that heard this statement, “On the eve of the
war, many Americans admired German traditions in literature, music, and philosophy, and one-
quarter of all the high school students in the country studied the German language.” Several
states eventually began banning people from even speaking German over the phone, saying that
the only language that should be spoken is English.xxi This racism towards outside countries and
races directly affected how American’s viewed their own citizens. This is very similar to the
situation mentioned before between the KKK and white men that sided with blacks. The KKK
would harm their own just to prove how much they disliked a different race and state their
dominance.
After the First World War it was said that “much of the hostility directed toward alleged
pro-German Americans was redirected against radical labor organizers and other accused of
being agents of Bolshevik, or communist, regime in Russia.”xxii America would keep their
racism turned towards Germany and Russia until the events of World War II would make Asia
join the ranks. But as mentioned, their focus began to shift again focusing less on pro-German
Americans towards other problems. Citizens began dealing with the “Red Scare” and the failing

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of Americanization, which led them to begin putting limits on immigration completely.
Beginning with Europe in 1921, America would limit immigrants to “357,000 per year (one-
third of the annual average before the war),” and continue limiting until in 1924 European
immigrants were limited to 150,000 a year.xxiii But even worse was the policy in 1924 also barred
Asian immigrants, completely. People would begin to know this moment as the closing of the
“golden door,” a reference to the last phrase inscribed on America’s Statue of Liberty.xxiv
“Golden door” has a very strong meaning because the statement sounds very similar to the
Golden Gate located in Jerusalem where it is believed, in Jewish culture, that the Holy Spirit
entered the world. America’s intentions may not have meant to sound like coming to their
country was like entering heaven, but given the elitism shown so far it is easy to assume as to
why they chose this moment in history to recall the idea of “golden door” after so many years.
Soon after the door was closed, America was hit with the worst stock market crash in history
leading to a worldwide depression. The Great Depression would devastate American people
completely changing their ways of living. American’s even began moving away from the city
with 33 million people living on farms, “more than any previous point in American history.”xxv
With the social fabric of America changing, new ideas and policies began being implemented to
help lessen this blow that depression left on the American people. One such policy was the New
Deal, a movement to help bring an economic security back to American’s. The New Deal did
bring back that security but because the golden door being closed, and not to mention most
countries were also worrying about their own economic standings, little was happening with
inclusion or exclusion during this time. This quickly changed when World War II began and
America was forced to look outside their borders once again.

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World War II affected America’s views and policies towards foreign races drastically. Up
until 1941, 80 percent of Japan’s oil was being shipped from the United States.xxvi It was when
the war began in Europe that Americans began thinking back at World War I, and decided they
wanted nothing to do with an event like that again. Isolationism became what was on every
American’s mind, and with a series of Neutrality Acts, they obtained their wish. It was not until
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America joining the war front that you see the
reemergence of the racism harbored from World War I. Germans, Russians, and now Japanese,
become the blunt of America’s racism, and America decided to act the same as before. With fear
of communists and German, Russian or Japanese supporters, there was just as much fighting
inside America as outside. Once again, America’s racism towards their enemies directly affected
the way they treated their own citizens. The harshest moment of their racism occurred when
112,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast alone were shipped against their will to
internment camps during the war.xxvii This extreme racism is once again a sad moment in
American history, although they did release those put into camps near the end of the war, it still
shows how powerful one’s racism can affect their judgment as well as policies.
As the World Wars came to a close, American’s began their revolution of Civil Rights for
both blacks as well as women. This fight had kept silent over the course of the wars and had been
brought back to the spotlight. Both African Americans and women of America finally obtained
their rights in the sixties through years of protesting.xxviii America’s racism had lessened towards
their citizens, finally finding a point where nearly all men and women no matter their race could
go to America and live a life free of discrimination. President Jimmy Carter even brought the
term “human rights” to the view of the world, preaching that people should stop looking at
foreign countries as either “communist or noncommunist.”xxix Even foreign policy began to

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display America’s new sense of rights and lack of racism as a whole. However, just as before,
American racism began to shift to where it now currently resides. September 11th, 2001
devastated everyone and shook the foundations of American lives. This event would reawaken
the fear of other cultures in Americans, leading to more new policies regarding inclusion and
exclusion. America began to implement strategies to try and “reshape the world in terms of
American ideals and interests.”xxx This would also lead to President Bush giving his famous
“axis of evil” speech, furthering Americans hatred towards “terrorists,” which, because of 9/11,
most people associate with Iraq and the Muslim people.xxxi There are accounts of racism towards
Muslims within the United States,xxxii but they are very isolated compared to the actions during
the World Wars, with the blunt of racism being focused outside American borders.
Throughout the history of America, racism has been a huge catalyst to most decisions
regarding inclusion and exclusion within the United States. America during the Civil War mainly
focused their racism towards their own people, African Americans, without much regard for
foreign countries. It shifted during the World Wars to where it encompassed both sides of the
coin, worrying about races inside as well as outside America, affecting both sides greatly. The
final shift of racism America experienced was after September 11th, when their entire focus was
pushed outside American borders. So much so they began trying to implement American ideals
in outside countries rather than just immigrants within their own borders. These shifts directly
relate to America’s foreign policies in each of these eras, and it easy to determine that although
America has made strides in human rights, their approach towards races are the same even until
today. White’s controlling blacks, Americans converting immigrants and finally ending with
America working to convert the world.

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i Paul D. Escott,""What Shall We Do with the Negro?”: Lincoln, White Racism, and Civil War America,"The New
England Quarterly,82, no. 4 (2009): 713.
ii Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, (New York: W.W.Norton, 2005), 546-547.
iii Ibid., 559.
iv Foner, 546-555.
v Escott, 713.
vi Ibid., 713.
vii John David Smith, ed.,Black Voices from Reconstruction,1865-1877 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida,
1997), 49.
viii Foner, 565.
ix Foner, 566.
x Ibid., 577.
xi Ibid., 578.
xii Walter C. Rucker, Leslie Alexander, ed.Encyclopedia of African American History. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-
CLIO, 2010), 163.
xiii Kristofer Allerfeldt, "Race and Restriction: Anti-Asian immigration Pressures in the Pacific North-west of
America during the Progressive Era, 1885-1924,"History, 88, no. 289 (2003), 55.
xiv Foner, 650.
xv Ibid., 736.
xvi Ibid.,650.
xvii Ibid., 737.
xviii “Roosevelt Bars the Hyphenated: No Room in this Country for Dual Nationality, He Tells Knights of
Columbus,” New York Times, (Oct 13, 1915), 1.
xix Foner, 738.
xx Ibid., 738.
xxi Ibid., 738.
xxii Attorney General [A. Mitchell] Palmer, “The Case Against the ‘Reds,’” Forum (February 1920), 173.
xxiii Foner, 781.
xxiv “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
xxv Foner, 790.
xxvi Ibid., 839.
xxvii “Charles Kukuchi on Life in a Japanese Internment Camp 1942”, in Belmonte, Speaking ofAmerica, 716.
xxviii Foner, 989-995.
xxix Ibid., 1022.
xxx Ibid., 1092.
xxxi Ibid., 1093.
xxxii Anne Hull, “In N.C., Anxiety and Animosity Put an Edge on an Old Dream,” Washington Post (November 25,
2001), 3.