Chapter 2

The 2^nd chapter in Takaki was about how the Indians were treated upon the English’s arrival to the Americas and the information that was more or less “changed”. Upon the arrival of Christopher Columbus, if you already don’t know, there is a lot of truth that was taken out of the discovery of America. Columbus did come here, but he did come in peace, upon arrival he took advantage of the kindness of the native Americans who really didn’t want any trouble at all they looked to them as friends. Columbus first got al the gold he could out of them and then started to take them back as slaves for the queen; he even killed some of them. This later led to the English coming over and doing the same thing, they Indians again looked to them as friends and only thought of living in peace with them, but instead they were viewed as savages. The book puts this as the first time that race was really identified. As more and more people started to some to the Americas more and more people were put into the process of assimilation, next in line would be the Irish. They too were seen s savages but more so savages that could be civilized. The English then took it upon themselves to try and civilize the “brutes” as they called them, saying that it was “god’s work”. They also applied this to the Indians saying that it was “manifest destiny” that the English got the land.

My question would have to be, why in the world do the English think they we so much better? Wasn’t the main reason they were coming over here was because they were being oppressed in England? That is a really big double standard if you ask me. What makes it worse is that they put God in it, which just complicates the matter even more than it was in the first place. After all this they used that to say that they were not “civilized” which was basically the start of racism and race, using that excuse to assimilate them into their way of thinking. What’s so wrong with being different that they had to take people who were obviously happy with thier lives before hand and take that away?

I have to agree with the main idea here that we should not hold this information from the text books, to me knowing the truth is a lot better than hearing someone’s nice rendition of it; it makes for a lot of confusion when you learn the truth. In knowing the real story, you can judge whether what they did back then as good or bad, it gives you the choice, that way if you hear a different rendition like with Columbus you can judge as needed.