Lipsets American Creed :: essays research papers

Lipsets American Creed     Liberty. Egalitarianism. Individualism. Populism. Laissez-faire.These five concepts embody the "American credence" as described by author SeymourMartin Lipset. Lipset feels that this "American creed" is representative of anideology that tot everyy Americans share. Lipsets argument is on shaky ground,however, when scrutinized to a lower place the microscope of race. Racial relations inthis country do much to profane the validity of Lipsets argument, especiallythe concepts of egalitarianism and populism.     Take, for example, The Deforming Mirror of Truth, the debut to a password by Nathan Huggins entitled Black Odyssey The African-American Ordeal inSlavery. This introduction focuses on how slavery fit into the nationalconsciousness. With knocked out(p) a doubt, there is a powerful abnormality in the foundingof America. The documents establishing a country where all men are createdequal neglect to address, or even diagnose by name, those people whose lives were"merely the extension of the masters will" (Huggins xiv). Indeed, thissuggests that the insane asylum Fathers had an "out of sight, out of mind" mentalitytowards the issue of slavery.     While Huggins understands why the Founding Fathers may have elected toignore the issue, he hardly thinks that it was a good composition. "It encouraged thebelief that American hi base-its institutions, its values, its people- was onething and racial slavery and oppression were a different story" (Huggins xii).He reinforces this idea by looking at the historical perspective that wasprevalent in America until only recently. "American historians, guarding theideological integrity of the center, have cherished to treat race and slavery asmatters apart from the real, central story of American history" (Huggins xvi).     Race and slavery. Two concepts that most peop le would have are foreverlinked in America. To assume that blacks and white became equals after(prenominal) theEmancipation Proclamation and the Civil War is ludicrous. The South immediatelybegan establishing what came to be known as Jim Crow laws. Roger B. Taney,Chief Justice of the US sovereign Court, wrote in a court document that "black"Americans (which is to say some(prenominal) American of African decent) had "no rights awhite man look at respect". This statement included those blacks who were notslaves. Furthermore, it was only in the last mentioned half of this century that thenation became integrated, and there are still approbatory Action laws in placeto ensure fair consideration of all individuals on the job market. Is this acountry of equality? Is egalitarianism a value embraced by all Americans? Itis obvious what Nathan Huggins thinks of the matter.     The concept of populism also travel under fire when considered from aracial standpoint.