Lipsets American Creed :: essays research papers

Lipsets American Creed     Liberty. Egalitarianism. Individualism. Populism. Laissez-faire.These five concepts embody the "American creed" as described by author SeymourMartin Lipset. Lipset feels that this "American creed" is representative of anideology that all Americans sh atomic number 18. Lipsets argument is on shaky ground,however, when scrutinized under the microscope of lean. Racial dealing inthis country do much to undermine the validity of Lipsets argument, curiouslythe concepts of egalitarianism and populism.     Take, for example, The Deforming Mirror of Truth, the introduction to abook by Nathan Huggins empower Black Odyssey The African-American Ordeal inSlavery. This introduction focuses on how bondage fit into the nationalconsciousness. Without a doubt, there is a powerful constipation in the foundingof America. The documents establishing a country where all men are createdequal neglect to address, or even mention by name, those hatful whose lives were"merely the extension of the masters will" (Huggins xiv). Indeed, thissuggests that the Founding Fathers had an "out of sight, out of intellectual" mentalitytowards the issue of slavery.     While Huggins understands why the Founding Fathers may fuck off elected toignore the issue, he hardly thinks that it was a good idea. "It advance thebelief that American report-its institutions, its values, its people- was onething and racial slavery and oppression were a different story" (Huggins xii).He reinforces this idea by smell at the historical perspective that wasprevalent in America until solitary(prenominal) recently. "American historians, guarding theideological integrity of the center, have wanted to treat race and slavery asmatters apart from the real, central story of American history" (Huggins xvi).     Race and slavery. Two concepts that most people woul d agree are everlinked in America. To assume that blacks and white became equals after theEmancipation resolution 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 Supreme Court, wrote in a court document that "black"Americans (which is to say any American of African decent) had "no rights awhite man need respect". This mastery included those blacks who were notslaves. Furthermore, it was only in the latter half of this deoxycytidine monophosphate that thenation became integrated, and there are still Affirmative Action laws in placeto ensure fair consideration of all individuals on the trading 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 falls under cease when considered from aracial standpoint.