Donald Trump’s presidency platform is to make America Great Again. However, he forgot to mention people of color, women and the working middle-class are exluded from reaping the benefits of America’s “great” history.
For starters, we have a national holiday dedicated to genocide. In school, Thanksgiving is a fun time for children to draw turkeys with their hands, share what they’re thankful for and dress up as pilgrims and Indians. They’re taught that the pilgrims and Indians (there was no distinction on which tribe because many people believe all Indians are the same) had a three-day feast to celebrate the pilgrims’ first successful harvest and to thank the Indians for teaching them to survive in the unfamiliar territory. The holiday was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, in an attempt to provide unity between the North and the South. In reality, the interactions between the native people and the pilgrims were anything but peaceful. William B Newell, a Penobscot Indian and former chair of the anthropology department of the University of Connecticut said that the first thanksgiving was a massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children. In 1637, the Pequot tribe of Connecticut gathered for the annual Green Corn Dance ceremony. English and Dutch mercenaries attacked and surrounded the village. The next day, the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony declared the day a thanksgiving. For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by the governor was in honor of the bloody victory. For Many Americans today, thanksgiving is a time for food, family and Black Friday shopping, but for Native American people, it’s a time for mourning their ancestors.
Also, not all women were given the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th amendment. Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were prominent figures behind the women’s suffrage movement. Both women came from privileged backgrounds. Cady was the daughter of Daniel Cady, a respected lawyer judge and congressman. Cady was the first women to run for Congress. There was no law preventing her from taking office if elected. Anthony studied at a Quaker school in Philadelphia around 1826. She later became the head of the girls’ department at Canajoharie Academy. Stanton and Anthony passed away before they could see their tireless work come into fruition. The 19th amendment was ratified in 1920, granting white women the white to vote. African American women in the south were not able to vote until 1964 due to poll taxes and literacy tests. Latinas faced a similar situation to African-American women. The 1975 extension of the Voting Rights Act made it possible to translate registration materials into Spanish.
Then there’s the lack of LGBTQ rights. LGBT people have been fighting for equal rights since 1924 when Henry Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights in Chicago. In 1950, a senate report titled “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government” stated LGBTQ community members were not fit to be employed in government. The report stated homosexuality is a mental illness and LGBTQ people are unstable and would be a security risk. Around 500 gay men and women were fired. LGBTQ people also faced discrimination in the military. It wasn’t until 2010, that the Senate voted to repeal the “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell Policy” allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the U.S. military. LGBTQ people have made great strides for civil rights. In 2015, same sex marriage became legal in all 50 states. However, LGBT people, especially transgender people still face violence and discrimination. The same year same sex marriage was legalized, at least 21 transgender men and women were killed.
And “Reaganomics.” During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan began deregulating and cutting taxes on capitalism. This was commonly refereed to as “Reaganomics” or, as George H.W. Bush, called it “Voodoo Economics.” Reagan believed that giving more money to wealthy people would produce prosperity for all. Income inequality skyrocketed during the Reagan years. The gap between the rich and poor has grown about 50 percent since the late 1980s.
And finally: foreign policy. More than two hundred years after George Washington warned of America’s involvement with foreign affairs, the United States found itself all of the world in a plethora of military commitments with various countries. America is attempting to maximize its power and influence around the world while domestic relations deteriorate.