Cody Clegg's Assessment of Frederickson's Argument

I felt that Frederickson's argument was very well thought-out and well made. He raised many points in a light under which I had previously not examined the subject of racism. His methodology in organizing his argument based on key belief groups (in terms of racial and ethnic opinion) was quite brilliant, though simple. In doing so, he helped me come to some thought provoking ideas.

One interesting point that was made in his argument was about that of cultural “otherness.” Not only had I never heard this word used to describe nonwhite individuals, but I felt that it was very descriptive in terms of conveying the feeling of white supremacy. Otherness seems to have a more animal and less human connotation to it, so I felt it accurately described some feelings of racism. Frederickson also referred to Americans as being in the “American club,” which I felt could be seen as a sort of parallel between a popularity contest and white cultural exclusivity.

The difference between racism toward Native Americans and blacks was another intriguing topic of Frederickson's discussion. He claimed that Native Americans were viewed as noble savages who could be tamed and incorporated into American society after their culture was stripped away, while blacks were biologically inferior, and therefore could not be assimilated. Though I certainly don't agree with such a claim, I had never seen a direct comparison between these two different eras of racism. Furthermore, Frederickson expands his point, saying, “before the 1940s, people of color . . . were generally deemed ineligible for assimilation because of their innate inferiority to white ethnics” (454). All these ideas fell under a category that Frederickson called the One-way Assimilation Model. At the end of his argument, however, he states that the most likely method for solving race problems in America would be cultural pluralism, allowing individuals to set their own cultural identity, and I agree with his conclusion statement in full.