American exceptionalism

American Exceptionalism runs so deep that sometimes it’s hard to admit when our democracy fails to uphold the values laid out in the Constitution. And at first glance it may appear as though Benjamin Franklin’s quotation regarding the relationships between Democracy and Liberty with minorities buys into this traditional pro-democracy, pro-American narrative that gets perpetuated by mainstream academia. By asserting that “liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote,” Franklin provides an…

foreign nations which he believes we ought to take control of by belittling them and criticizing their capabilities to govern themselves. The senator states “They [Orientals,Malays] are not of a self-governing race” (Beveridge, Paragraph 7). American Exceptionalism is shown once again but this time, he is racist towards the other nations instead of just being nationalistic towards the United…

The Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War have often been categorized as either where the United States went wrong and became an imperialist power or where it went right and exerted its right to protect and promote democratic values. Historically the literature about United States involvement in the Spanish-American War has been to commemorate 1898 as the moment in which the nation first projected itself as a world power. The year 1898 was a watershed moment in history, it has…

first settled on the land and when America truly began to form its culture. Due to this search for identity, the views of Europe, Native Americans, and religion have been expressed in both positive and negative lights. In Benjamin Franklin’s Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Franklin’s positive views of Native Americans and negative views of England and religion are expressed while Paine’s negative view of all aspects are shown through their use of…

Europeans sought to exploit the arts in order to reform their societies. In the process the turned the arts into culture, into commodities, and created a central characteristic of modern life.” (Pg 550) This is just an instance of the advent of the American culture that could lend itself to the ability to transfer customs to other countries through the arts. The people of this time could not have thought about the increased popular culture output by the United States through many media outlets…

LG: How did Americans come to believe in Manifest Destiny? Americans came to believe in Manifest Destiny, by John O’ Sullivan stating, “God has given land to Americans”. Thus, making the country to believe that it was justifiable, that Americans should expand the country from coast to coast. Though the expansion lead to Sectionalism with the North and South. Due to America’s history, culture, and government, Americans thought that they were the best country making American Exceptionalism to…

about their race. This has been an ongoing problem in the African American community in the U.S. There have been incidents that have occurred that have been made internationally known like, the beating of Rodney King in 1991 and more recently the murder of Trayvon Martin. These events cause fear in the African American community when the police are involved. In the Rodney King beating consisted of a videotape of an African American male being beat continuously by four police officers during…

there is a dramatic difference in the risk of incarceration for persons who do not complete high school. Research by Bruce Western and Becky Pettit shows that 68percent of African American male high school dropouts had served time in prison by the age of 34 (Western & Pettit, 2010). Consider this: African Americans make up an estimated 15 percent of drug users, but they account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 59 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of all drug…

What am I going to eat tonight? How am I going to help my family out? Questions like these often creep into our minds as well. I’m fortunate enough not to have these problems first hand but some of my teammates struggle in eating every night because they just don’t have money to always buy food. Not everyone on the football team is on scholarship, we have a good amount of walk-ons on our team and after practice we eat dinner, but just the guys on scholarship. It sounds really harsh but that is…

Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is an excellent example of an effective argument; it was written in response to an editorial addressing the issue of Negro demonstrations and segregation in Alabama at the time. He writes in a way that makes his argument approachable; he is not attacking his opposition, which consists of eight Alabama clergymen who wrote the editorial. This is illustrated in his opening sentence: “My dear Fellow Clergymen” (464). King was an activist for…