The population of the world, which consists of many peoples of different cultures, nationalities, backgrounds and beliefs, is becoming a “melting pot” where the cultures and races are mixing, decreasing the prejudices and stereotypes that have long existed in human history and unfortunately still exist today.
The article titled “The Hidden History of Mestizo America”, describes the historical mixing of people of different races and cultures. It starts out by describing the events that took place in London, in January of 1617. During the performance of “The Vision of Delight” where King James I and Queen Ann were present, their guests—John Rolfe and his wife Rebecca, who was the daughter of a native king Powhatan, were also in attendance. This was the public display of first interracial marriage that was historically recorded in the United States. King James was not against this interracial marriage and that’s why this was the time when there were a number of such unions. Another person who was a supporter of the interracial marriages is Patrick Henry, who in 1784 proposed free education to children born from white-Native American marriages. Tomas Jefferson also promoted the mixing of these two peoples. In the year 1809 young Sam Houston left his home to lead a life in the Cherokee tribe. He was a connecting link and an ambassador of his tribe to the American people. But in 1839 things drastically changed when the president of the Lone Star Republic Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar focused his rule on the extermination of the Cherokees and the unfair treatment went on to paint a rather grim chapter in the history of humanity.
In the 1600s to the 1800s a different intercultural mixing was taking place. As there were some African slaves who were escaping the abusive treatment by the white colonists, they chose to hide among the native settlers of the Americas and as a result formed Afro-Native mixes. A sad turn took place in the eighteenth’s century when the Cherokee people started mimicking the white people and used Blacks as slaves. One fourth of the Cherokee population was intermixed by the 1830s with the majority of mixes being white but Blacks were intermixed as well. Another change took place at the arrival of Indian people. Since they were not allowed to marry other races and could not bring their own wives and children with them, they found a loophole in the law, which would issue permission to marry other races according to skin color. This led to the marriages between Punjabis and Mexicans and so in the years 1913-1949, 80% of Indian men had marriages with Hispanic women. As with native people and Blacks, a similar thing happened with the mix between Spanish and Africans. The new settlers from Spain often brought slaves with them and this led to a mixture of their cultures. With all these different populations co-existing on the same territory, Spanish, African and Indian people became mixing more than ever. The art of that time, which is reflected in the paintings, often portrays such intermarriages, reflecting on the cultural views predominant in that era. By the early twentieth century people of middle and upper classes who were white started moving out of the city into the suburbs and began creating mostly Anglo-Saxon mixes, which was their way to return to the origins of the “white society.” A supporter of multiculturalism—Randolph Bourne, was another great man who realized that the mixing of people into one would be a positive thing for the world’s population. He died in 1918 and everything came back to the way it was—discrimination and racism. It was not until 1965 that a Secretary of State Dean Rusk greatly changed the policies of the United States. After this the world became the way we see it today (Nash 959).
The facts that the article offers are not the first example that show how cruel and unfair people can sometimes be. For strange reason the prejudice that some people are superior and others are inferior existed since the beginning of time. One of possible explanations is that the human nature entails egoism and self-love. People who had problems and negative predispositions with their own nature and nation, had to find an outlet for their despair. It was “unwise” for them to do it towards themselves or they could not come up with steps at bettering their nation, so they had to express their anger with own shortcomings on others. This was easier and showed how strong and powerful they were, which reinforced their view that they are the dominant race on the planet. The colonies that existed all over the world are the proof of that. People, who constantly exterminate the native populations of newly discovered places and give rise to their own civilizations, are pursuing fake greatness. But at the same time there are many examples that illustrate individuals who understood how wrong this prejudice was. They were kind and considered everyone equal. These people wanted to share cultures and knowledge, to create a better world by reasoning and mixing with the native peoples who were so different and interesting. This article and human history overall prove the constant fight between those people who think they are the smartest and that their will should be superior and those who believe in the unity and equality of everyone, doing anything in their power, even giving away their life, to fight for the noble cause.
It is foolish that with all these examples in the past, which clearly show how only together and with fairness people can reach great heights, there are still uneducated and self-centered individuals who base their existence on proving to themselves that they are not worthless through demeaning and judging others negatively. How long will it take until these inequalities cease to exist within the human civilizations and its absence will finally bring the focus on the development of the humanity instead of its degradation?
References
Nash, Gary. “The Hidden History of Mestizo America,” The Journal of American History, 82.3 (1995): 941-964. Print.