Supremacy is the American Experience

American Experience Essay

            While societies are constantly changing, history tends to be centralized around certain patterns or ideas that reoccur in every momentous decade or era.  In the case of the United States, there will always be a battle between those considered superior and their subordinate counterparts.  With superiority comes a sense of belonging and power, and a dignified knowledge that understands the magnitude of its control over society.  These superior individuals lounge at the pinnacle of a community’s social structure, dictating the outcome of various conflicts or debates.  Alternatively, inferiority is accompanied by secondary privileges and inescapable inequity.  Individuals stuck in an inferior level of society may have basic liberties stripped from them in order to benefit those in power.  Of course there are those in the median gray area where people exist both above and below them in society; however, this section is dwindling as the strength of supremacy grows in its role in America’s history.

            When the Declaration of Independence was passed on July 4^th, 1776, Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues felt it imperative to grant every citizen “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (The Charters of Freedom) In this respect, all citizens of the United States were thus equal in their basic rights in the newly established nation in America.  Throughout the course of the next three hundred years in United States history, groups of people may have pushed for this ideal equality in order to reestablish the intentions of the Founding Fathers.  As Thomas Jefferson said in his first inaugural address as president, “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists,” (Jefferson) in which he acknowledges the strong American tendency to divide into political parties. Yet in an attempt to unite the nation and prevent political division, Jefferson argues that both parties have the same motives and goals.  Neither Republican nor Federalist Party is any more desirable or superior to the other because both ultimately strive for national unity and harmony.  Also promoting general equality in the nation was Abraham Lincoln who, in the act of passing the Emancipation Proclamation in the 1860s, declared all slaves free from the states in rebellion due to the Civil War (Lincoln). Formerly well below whites and other races in American society, African Americans were allowed by the Proclamation to rise up in social status and reach societal equality.  Freed from the binding of slavery, these former laborers were able to pursue other goals and achievements, providing an opportunity for them to equalize the subordination of races. 

Moving into the twentieth century, groups of people advocated the elimination of superiority in society based on claims related to politics or labor.  The Socialist Party in particular “offered a gender-free and colorblind invitation to membership,” and in doing so, “endorsed equal civil and political rights.” (Miller)  Addressing the social corruption evident in American society, Socialists promoted political rights for both men and women so to settle the imbalance of gender equality, and limit the overarching power of men in society.  The nineteenth amendment establishing female suffrage was not passed until 1920; Socialists provided an outlet and temporary opportunity for women searching for equality prior to the Constitutional solution.

As a people of personal will and determination, Americans can be triggered by even a hint of subordination in society.  Unfortunately, given the unavoidable nature of supremacy in American communities, these rebellions to superiority have always been quelled or quieted to maintain a usual balance of power.  Supremacy remains, as it has throughout American history, a dominantly unjust yet inescapable aspect of American society.

The meager efforts of several determined individuals in America’s history were hardly enough to eliminate, or even stir, the prominence of societal superiority.  After having defied the supremacy of the British in the American Revolution, American shifted their focus towards expansion and acquisition.  This could not be completed, however, without managing the Indians settled on lands targeted for expansion.  Thus, under the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, the United States passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to satisfy the American yearning for wealth and power.  With “a clam-shell, or the shoulder blade of a buffalo, tied to a stick” as the only mode of agriculture for the Indians, American expansionists with superior weapons and technology found ease in pushing the inferior Indians off of their respective lands (“Removal of the Indians”). Despite the reality that the Native Americans had preceded European settlers in establishing communities in America, white superiors, such as the author of this article, found it imperative to push the inept tribes aside for further American advancement.  The simplistic, modest lifestyle of the Indians was not admired, but resented as primitive and insignificant, elevating white Americans to a superior status, both in technology and society.  In order for the United States to reach the magnitude and power it has today, this expansion and suppression of Indians was not necessary but unavoidable in the course of America’s history.  Inescapable as it was, this led to horrifying destruction of culture and native society, particularly in the Trail of Tears.  This forced removal of Cherokee Indians at this time led to the death of approximately 4,000 natives from “hunger, exposure and disease.” (“A Brief History of the Trail of Tears”)

While this trend continued in the following decades, another turn of events emphasized the importance of American supremacy at the increase of immigration rates in the late nineteenth century.  As the supposed superior nation in the global scene of the 1880s, the United States found it imperative to rid society of any alleged inferior individuals that would potentially disrupt America’s success.  Therefore the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed to prevent these immigrants from entering the country since these people “endanger[ed] the good order of certain localities” within the U.S. (“Transcript of the Chinese Exclusion Act”).  Although with no proof of their supremacy over the Chinese, Americans insisted that Chinese laborers had negative effects on American society. The suspension of Chinese entry into the U.S. only established an American supremacy as a superior nation.

Particularly following the years of World War II, the United States as a global superpower found it vital to demonstrate its supremacy within American society.  As the Communist “Red” Scare ensued in the late 1940s, many Americans became frantic with finding the disguised communists in American society that could pose a threat to the U.S. capitalist system.  The search for “Reds” became so severe that even elementary school teachers were scrutinized and inspected to minute detail in order to locate these hidden communists.  Since communism was seen as a undesirable, corrupt form of government in the United States, American anti-subversive committees and anti-communist individuals became blinded by the threat of the equally supreme superpower of the U.S.S.R. as they began to accuse innocent members of society of communist actions, such as school teachers, and organizations including Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (Washington Post).

More recently, several groups of people have been battling the supremacy of individuals not based on class or power, but on race and gender.  In the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, women have slowly gained more rights in military participation, but not without a cost.  However, according to the New York Times, women still face “sexual discrimination and rape,” which requires “counselors and rape kits…in war zones.” (Alvarez) Although women can hold military positions more commonly in present-day, it is only the illusion of equality as there are costs to attempting to equalize the gender ranks in combat.  Altered living arrangements, as well as emotional and physical protection from abuse are required in order to allow women to remain in the military.  Establishing particular boundaries and adjustments for women still keeps many of them in subordination to military men. 

Although the issues of slavery from past centuries have been resolved, remnants of the white and black culture controversy have endured through present day.  Bitterness and repulsion characterize the feelings of the most radical of African American activists due to the societal subjugation of this race in some areas of the United States.  Harlem provides only one of the many locations in which white communities live comfortably and in close approximation, while African American communities are still confined to filthy, crowded accommodations (Theroux). Some African Americans feel insecure and at risk of harm in regions dominated by white culture.  Fears of subjugation and violence have become ubiquitous in the daily struggle of some African Americans to stay safe, simply due to the superiority of the white upper class.

Although supremacy in America is not always fair or popular, it is very much inescapable.  In order for social structure to exist, individuals will always push others below them to achieve prosperity and wealth.  An ideal society would be one were this unjust supremacy has evaporated, but in the modern day world, it is simply impossible.  American society has mastered supremacy down to a science and although one group may escape from inferiority one day, another group of individuals will fall to its grasp the next day.  Unreasonable as it is, supremacy is an active aspect of American society, as it has been, and as it always will be.