American Exceptionalism Research Paper

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The Problems of American Exceptionalism
The influential civil rights writer, James Baldwin, once said “I love America more than any other country in the world and, for exactly this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually”. This is an important concept in democracy. If the citizens of a country are unable to point out the issues and problems within their society, it will not progress. Yet this is too often forgotten, and those who point out a nation’s flaws are immediately dismissed as unpatriotic. This is particularly the case in the U.S. because of American exceptionalism, or belief that America is different from other countries because of its history, and culture. Typically in the United States, this difference is associated …show more content…
History books often depict Native Americans as savages who couldn’t tame the frontier, and the term civilization tends to consistently follow Europeans while forgetting Native Americans. (Loewen, 99) This is far from correct, yet Rupert Costo, founder of the American Indian Historical Society, once said, “There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.” (Loewen, 99) The way history is taught about Native Americans, from a textbook point of view, is both incorrect, and rude to Native Americans, though little ever changes in the way history is …show more content…
If most Americans were asked whether or not they believed the United States was an equal country in modern history, most would probably say yes. But when the treatment of Natives is compared to that of Euro-Americans, it becomes apparent that this is not so. After the centuries of discrimination, it has become difficult for the indigenous people of the Americas to enjoy the same privileges and freedoms as other Americans. One recent example clearly illustrates this: the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dakota Access Pipeline is intended to bring oil directly from Canada to the United States; however, one section of it runs right alongside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and that section would damage sacred burial grounds of the Native Americans there. The pipeline would also contaminate their drinking water. Originally, the pipeline was supposed to go next to a nearby town, not the reservation, but white residents’ complaints about water contamination led to a change in route, next to the reservation. Now the company will not reroute for the same complaint, this time lodged by Indians. (Dakota Pipeline: What’s Behind the Controversy?, 2017) Clearly, many people still view Native Americans as less than other
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