!White Men Built This Country
This is probably the stupidest remark I have heard in a long while--so it deserves at the very least a 5-cent exegesis.
To begin with, no man, white or otherwise, has ever walked this earth without first being birthed by a woman. So, to begin with, women built this country. In fact women are the authors of the world and its history.
And they built it long before the first Europeans with their spiritual and cultural blindness ever crossed the great waters. The early colonists would have perished if not for the assistance rendered by indigenous Americans who taught them survival skills and provided them with food.
There is a historical thesis that the Iroquois Confederation was the inspirational source for the American Constitution, and at the very least were influential in shaping the political scientific thinking of 'founding father' Benjamin Franklin. Add to that the labor and ingenuity provided by the original black colonists, who also constructed the Capitol, and whose labor made Cotton the King in the south, and White Men recede a little further in the distance. Then, consider the contribution made by Hispanic,and Asian settlers and arrivistes and 'this country' begins to take shape. No one can deny that black folks gave America the form of music known as The Blues, and Jazz, which have gone one to create a great wealth of culture both in and out of America. I could go on and on, but library shelves full of books document the contributions that persons who are not white males have made to build this country.
The Europeans who first arrived in the Caribean instituted a program of ethnic cleansing that wiped the Caribe indigenes off the face of the Earth. When Europeans first arrived in Australia, they hunted the Aborigenes like dogs. The Aborigenes had one of the most advanced spiritual and artistic cultures the world has known at that time--but all the English invaders could see was 'Savages'. The Australian environment was the consequence of 40,000 years of gentle and harmonious shaping by the hand of the Aborigene, who had the skills to turn poisonous streams into potable water, and make a nice boulevard through the forest for easy hiking. Europeans, with their scientific focus and their 'Christianity, were paradigm bound, and blind to the cultural and spiritual qualities in the societies they encountered as their technology spread them around the globe. Spanish Priests burned the entire library of Mayan codecs, save for a couple that escaped their notice.
That someone like Pat Buchanan could assert that white men built this country is evidence that the blindness and ignorance persist to this day. If the children of the Europeans could only realize what their blindness has meant as a curse for them they would weep for their own poverty of mind and spirit.
Signed,
A white male descendent of British ancestry
















..and the two most qualified, capable and famous American explorers of their time, starving, lost and without horses to carry them through the mountains as winter approached, were saved by a recently pregnant teenager, a Native American named Sacagawea.
July 17, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point. Lewis and Clark owe any success they had on that mission to their fortuitous encounter with Sacagawea, who certainly had more on the ball than her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau. If it hadn't been for the plucky teenager, it is doubtful they would have made it back alive.
July 17, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
An earlier post on Pat Buchana is here. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/gregorzap/2009/07/keeping-racism-alive-and-well.php
In short, Pat suggests in not so many words, if more white folks were racists, the GOP could win again. Except Pat does not grasp the probable reality that the GOP already has all the white racists there are left and the rest of the gringoes have gone 21st century, multi-cultural.
July 17, 2009 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I found most offensive was Buchanan's insinuation that only white men have died defending this country. That, if nothing else, clearly demonstrates his racial self-delusions. I don't know whether I despise Pat Buchanan or pity him. Perhaps, it's both.
July 17, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm. It's almost as if he has no idea who Crispus Attucks was, or how and when he died.
July 17, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly, or the Mass 54th and 55th during the Civil War. Hell, all he has to do is rent 'Glory' from his local video store. But, as I said, he's clearly self-deluded - an exemplary bigot.
July 18, 2009 8:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Asian American 442nd Infantry Regiment from WW2 (fighting chiefly in the bloodbaths in Italy against the defensive genius Field Marshall Kesselring) was composed chiefly of Japanese Americans, it was the most highly decorated unit in the history of the US Armed Forces. The unit was awarded 21 Congressional Medals of Honor, including one awarded to the Democratic Senator from Hawaii, Daniel Inouye. link
Many of the Japanese troops had parents and relatives imprisoned in US Concentration Camps in remote regions of the western US.
Pat Buchanan never served in the military or combat, getting a 4-F deferment, for a purported case of arthritis in 1960.
July 17, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I remember reading about this regiment. They were the first American troops ever to do a banzai charge, I think. The European Axis had the high ground and these Americans just went for it and got it.
July 17, 2009 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. The multi-cultural history of the U.S. is filled with examples of it's various minority groups trying their damnedest to prove they are as "American" as whites. Merely, to be accepted.
Americans of Japanese ancestry fought and died while their fathers, mothers, and sisters back home were held in concentration camps. Americans of African ancestry fought and died in two European wars to give a liberty to white Europeans which would continue to be denied them and their families by their own country upon returning home.
I can't see how it could be possible to demonstrate any greater loyalty, setting aside the offensiveness of the fact that non-whites should have felt so alienated by their own country. A country completely founded by and comprised of foreign immigrants/colonists.
July 18, 2009 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pat's White guys are going to have to take the blame for the Iraq War fiasco. Black Sec. of State Colin Powell advised against the war.
Pat's White guys are also going to have to take responsibility for the banking collapse and the decrease in economic stability in the US.
If Obama had the speaking skills of George W Bush or Sarah Palin, Obama would be considered stupid. If Eugene Robinson of the WaPo had made three errors in editorial columns requiring corrections, Robinson wold be shown the door. Bill Kristol after, three such errors at the NYT got rewarded with an column in the WaPo. I think there is n Affirmative Action Program for White Conservatives.
July 17, 2009 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great job!
July 17, 2009 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
If anyone built this country, it was the African Chinese and Latino, slaves and migrant workers.
July 17, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Immigrants too built this country. Look at the way the Irish were treated as well as those from the Balkan regions. There's Italians, Poles too! It wasn't the color of one's skin that made a difference, it was seeking a better life that made America great. Religion and skin tone had nothing to do with it.
July 18, 2009 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Point well taken. People of color were not the only ones abused by the privilaged. But I wouldn't go so far as to say race had nothing to do with it. Race has always had something to do with it and continues today. Just ask Pat Buchanan.
July 18, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
GTFOOH, Word! Check this out: All About race
July 17, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks 1849! Will share with the masses!
July 18, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your attempt at left-wing revisionism is almost as repugnant as Pat Buchanan's right-wing revisionism.
July 17, 2009 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't get out much, do you?
July 17, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think you know what left wing means. You certainly don't know what revisionism is. It is fact that more than two million Caribe Indians were living when Columbus landed on the island of Hispanola. They were gone, every last one of them, within a generation. It is a fact that the early English colonists were saved by Indians at Roanoke Island, Jamestown, and Massachusetts colony. It is a fact that black folks planted and picked cotton and created the Blues and Jazz. It is a fact that Chinese railway workers were lowered down into mine shafts with nitro-glycerine and detonated. It is a fact that Catholic Priests burned the Mayan codecs. None of this is revisionism. You can only make an ignorant claim like that if you are utterly unaware of the facts of the matter, which I am guessing that you are.
July 17, 2009 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is simply pathetic and sad when people, like Buchanan, feel the need to somehow attribute everything good about America to one race, one gender, etc... It is, of course, preposterous. America was built by everyone and we continue building to this day. What we strive for but have not attained is to build a republic where each human being is truly equal, each is equally free, each has equal opportunity, and each has an equal chance at a happy, healthy life. Who built America is the wrong question in the first place. A better question is who didn't help in building America? Answer? Nobody.
July 17, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Although Charles H. Pajeau and Robert Pettit are credited with the invention of Tinker Toys in 1914, I believe they reverse engineered their idea from older by-products of the Ojibway birch bark canoe industry.
Seriously, great post, DiogenesJr. When I started reading it, I thought of John Henry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54GNI2K3-ec
July 17, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good call. My point (aside from the inability of Eurocentric perception to grasp the value of other cultures and their manner of spiritual expression), is that America is a hybrid--a blend of different cultures and ethnicities on a level the world had never seen before. White Men were only ONE of the spices that went into this rich Stew--and many, many more, from all over the world have made a contribution. To say that America is fundamentally white is a lie--a blind, stupid lie. America is the color of cafe con leche...
July 17, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
we desperately need this message and we need it right now.
This overt racism is something I have not seen in decades with a few exceptions where the speaker was thrown out on his ass from his media dais.
I told Gregor, really a companion blog to this one, that Pat has got to be off of his meds:
Grandpa died last week
And he's buried in the rocks
Everybody still talks about
How badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen
I knew he lost control
When he built a fire on main street
And shot it full of holes.
July 17, 2009 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if Buchanan can truly be ignorant of the fact that a great many Americans didn't consider his immigrant grandpappy a white man? That the Irish were the Immigrant Threat of their day, thought to be incabale of assimilation into the fabric of "Decent American Society"?
July 17, 2009 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Angry could not begin to describe how I feel about Pat Buchanan and his disgusting views and willing disregard of facts. In my view, continuing to have Pat Buchanan as a guest commentator on MSNBC is no different than having David Duke perform the same function. We wouldn't tolerate that so why do we tolerate this David Duke in crazy, hapless uncle's clothing? MSNBC just lost a viewer.
More to the point of this post--I won't even get into all the things that racial minorities have done to literally build this country and its culture.
But I can't help to think of my Black grandfather who fought in WWII and my own Black father who fought in Vietnam as one of a disproportionate number of Blacks who served and died in that war.
I can't think of much more that builds the 'soul' of a nation, than those who fought and died for a Country and its promise when that same nation blatently refused to fight for them.
Thanks for posting this.
July 17, 2009 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink