I am honestly appalled that someone would teach that Manifest Destiny was just the pioneering spirit of Lewis and Clark, embodied in all the great pioneers of the old west.
When I was taught manifest destiny as a young grade schooler it was made abundantly obvious that it was a racist, superstitious bunch of hogwash that directly resulted in (or at least attempted to justify) the deaths and relocation of many Indian Americans, as well as for some wars and expansionist aggression.
I probably learned nothing of that, because grade school and jr. high whitewashed the hell out of American history. Which is why a schoolchild saying this would get a pass from me.
(Similarly, if a schoolchild said that the Founding Fathers were working tirelessly to eradicated slavery, they would get a pass. When Michele Bachmann said it? Not so much.)
It’s not just Mexicans and other Latinos who may have problems with the phrase. American expansion also had eyes northward and westward into British territory, as the War of 1812 illustrates. We learnt about Manifest Destiny in Canadian history, and it was not portrayed as benign.
I recall seeing a Canadian high school level history book once. The chapters alternated between American and Canadian history, and the Canadian chapters focused mainly how they avoided having the Americans take over some chunk of their territory during that period.
There are statues of Christopher Columbus, who instituted European slaving in the Americas and initiated the decimation of the Indians out of greed, all over the place too. Go figure.
The quotes are buried in discussions from a long time ago. Nothing in the article suggested that this was a Live Issue today . yes, I can honestly see someobne reading that and still not getting the idea that they’d get in trouble with this shirt.
If you made a T-shirt with Qu’ils mangent de la brioche on it, most people (in the US, at least) wouldn’t know what you were saying. Maybe a third would have at least a rough idea, but I doubt that anyone would protest, even though it was a profoundly insensitive remark that showed the callousness of the entire ruling class and fomented a revolution. If you Googled it, you’d csee it was a hateful thing. But it isn’t a Live Issue.
A good example as well, but Columbus Day parades and the like do get protested. I have to wonder whether a Columbus themed T-shirt or other marketing effort today would indeed meet the same protests as the MD shirt.
You weren’t just surprised, you kinda sneered that people could be offended, saying they were overly sensitive. Honest surprise isn’t something I would take issue with. Acting like because you didn’t know about it, other people are being too sensitive is something I DO take issue with.
