Ethnic Blog 1

As I begin, the British settled and colonized the Americas and the people they encountered we different in religion, dress, custom, and government. The British racialized what they saw as the “savage” nature of Native American culture and societies. First I will begin with telling you the definition of “savage” and radicalization to make my essay flow together. The British thought the Native Americans were “savage” nature of Native American culture and societies. This basically means the Native Americans were “different” than the British. Their ways seemed savage to whites, and they were very suspicious of their culture because it was different than their culture. According to Omni and Winant racialization is an ideological process, a specific one. They also say that we employ the term racialization to signify the extension of racial meaning to a previously unclassified relationship, social practice or group. So to continue, what did the British base this racialization? The British based this racialization against the Native Americans based on supposed racial and cultural superiority. Native Americans are pre-Revolution colonies, even as much as they might even be murdered in accordance with the British law. The British racialized Native people as “savages” because they were different in race and culture. The effects of this were while the colonists battled the British for independence, taking Native American land the effects were different about race and racial differences were beginning to change. Also with the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the emergent class struggles and the definition of the working class was in racial terms as “white.” The working class was affected by this and this perpetuated the color line within the working class. The last topic I will talk about is how we can see resonances of this racial formation in contemporary popular culture. It was stated in the article by Omi and Winant that class politics lost much of its resonance in a postindustrial economy, such as class formation and the developing forms of popular culture in U.S. history. In the more recent economic transformations the U.S. have also altered interpretations of racial identities and meanings. In today’s society we refer to colored people as “blacks” just because they are different, and even now some of us believe that people with different skin color or are from a different culture are viewed as “different,” because we are white, Caucasian Americans. This also affects getting jobs for some that are of a different skin color. It is bad to say, but in the U.S. and other countries some people treat others of a different ethnic background differently just because they are from another culture. Once everyone understands that discrimination and prejudice is wrong and that everyone should be treated equally, then everyone will have a fair chance. We should understand that everyone is different, but just because they have a different skin color or are from a different culture does not mean we should treat them any differently. In conclusion, race should be understood as unstable and “decentered” complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle. This was stated in the article Racial Formations by Omi and Winant.