Theodore Roosevelt and the "English Race"

[Tennyson]

“On the New England Coast the English blood was as pure as in any part of Britain; in New York and New Jersey it was mixed with that of the Dutch settlers—and the Dutch are by race nearer to the true old English of Alfred and Harold than are, for example, the thoroughly Anglicized Welsh of Cornwall. Otherwise, the infusion of new blood into the English race [more accurately, English amalgam] on this side of the Atlantic has been chiefly from three sources—German, Irish, and Norse; and these three sources represent the elemental parts of the composite English stock in about the same proportions in which they were originally combined—mainly Teutonic, largely Celtic, and with a Scandinavian admixture. The descendant of the German becomes as much an Anglo-American as the descendant of the Strathclyde Celt has already become an Anglo-Briton … It must always be kept in mind that the Americans and the British are two substantially similar branches of the great English race, which both before and after their separation have assimilated, and made Englishmen of many other peoples.…”

- Theodore Roosevelt, 1881

[Strengthandhonour]

Interesting.
I always thought Roosevelt disliked Huns. If I am not mistaken, during the Spanish-American war, when the Germans almost entered the war Roosevelt really started to dislike them. Calling them barbaric huns and so on.

[Errigal]

The US has been so swamped with other racial groups since 1881 that this quote is only of historical interest.

[Menydh]

Theodore Roosevelt and the Divided Character of American Nationalism

Gary Gerstle


Any examination of American nationalism must, sooner or later, contend with its contradictory character. On the one hand, it offers a civic creed promising all Americans the same individual rights irrespective of color, religion, or sex. That creed has strongly influenced American politics and society, imparting social cohesion to a sprawling, heterogeneous population and inspiring countless democratic movements. On the other hand, American nationalism has long harbored racial ideologies that define the United States and its mission in ethnoracial ways and have sought to prove American racial superiority through economic might and military conquest. As Rogers Smith, Matthew Jacobson, and others have shown, racialized constructions of American nationalism were present from the early days of the Republic: in the Constitution itself, which legalized slavery, and in a 1790 law declaring that naturalization would be limited to those individuals who were free and white. And such constructions persisted well into the twentieth century.

This essay explores the contradictory character of American nationalism. It does so not by identifying groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), espousing one principle or the other, but by examining how both principles often coexisted in the minds of single individuals. No individual better illustrates this phenomenon than Theodore Roosevelt, historian, dude rancher, civil service commissioner, police commissioner, governor, soldier, president, explorer. Few figures of any age have matched his devotion to the American nation or his influence on the form and content of American nationalism. Regardless of the task Roosevelt was carrying out, the office he had assumed, or the adventure he had undertaken, he was always looking for ways to strengthen the American nation and intensify the nationalist ardor of the American people.

Roosevelt's nationalism expressed itself as a combative and unapologetic racial ideology that thrived on aggression and the vanquishing of savage and barbaric peoples. From the perspective of that ideology, it was vital that "Americans" cultivate their racial superiority and expel or subordinate the racial inferiors in their midst. Yet, Roosevelt also located within American nationalism a powerful civic tradition that celebrated the United States as a place that welcomed all people, irrespective of their nationality, race, and religious practice, as long as they were willing to devote themselves to the nation and obey its laws. Moreover, Roosevelt loved the idea of America as a melting pot—a "crucible"—in which a hybrid race of many strains would be forged. Mixing of this sort, Roosevelt believed, had created and would sustain American racial superiority. His affection for the melting pot expressed, too, the personal delight he took in crossing social boundaries and meeting diverse groups of people.

Most of the time, Roosevelt found ways to reconcile his commitments to the racial and civic traditions of American nationalism. He disciplined his celebration of hybridity by insisting that certain kinds of boundary crossing would damage the racially superior character of the American nation, and he expended much effort to explain why blacks, in particular, could not participate in America's great melting pot. But Roosevelt's efforts at reconciliation were not always successful. In particular, his commitment to the civic tradition sometimes filled him with anxiety and uncertainty about America's racial order and caused him to violate that order in sensational and politically damaging ways. The civic and racial traditions, in other words, sometimes pulled Roosevelt in such different directions that he could not easily encase them both within the national identity he was laboring so hard to create. Building the American nation from such contradictory materials turns out to have been exceptionally difficult political and personal work.


[source]

Also of interest, Teddy Roosevelt and the Jews

[Breogan]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Interesting.
I always thought Roosevelt disliked Huns. If I am not mistaken, during the Spanish-American war, when the Germans almost entered the war Roosevelt really started to dislike them. Calling them barbaric huns and so on.

Yes, the typical anti-German propaganda in WWI: German soldiers depicted as Asiatic Huns. It was used largely on posters and journals:







An even during WWII:

[Breogan]

Originally Posted by Tennyson

“On the New England Coast the English blood was as pure as in any part of Britain; in New York and New Jersey it was mixed with that of the Dutch settlers—and the Dutch are by race nearer to the true old English of Alfred and Harold than are, for example, the thoroughly Anglicized Welsh of Cornwall. Otherwise, the infusion of new blood into the English race [more accurately, English amalgam] on this side of the Atlantic has been chiefly from three sources—German, Irish, and Norse; and these three sources represent the elemental parts of the composite English stock in about the same proportions in which they were originally combined—mainly Teutonic, largely Celtic, and with a Scandinavian admixture. The descendant of the German becomes as much an Anglo-American as the descendant of the Strathclyde Celt has already become an Anglo-Briton … It must always be kept in mind that the Americans and the British are two substantially similar branches of the great English race, which both before and after their separation have assimilated, and made Englishmen of many other peoples.…”

- Theodore Roosevelt, 1881

Only New England English and Dutch people were considered as American white people at first.

As time passed by other ethnicities were accepted as "whites", let's notice that when Roosevelt wrote this although Irish people got it, Italians and Slavic people not yet.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by Breogan

Only New England English and Dutch people were considered as American white people at first.

As time passed by other ethnicities were accepted as "whites", let's notice that when Roosevelt wrote this although Irish people got it, Italians and Slavic people not yet.

Noel Ignatiev: How the Irish Became White

[Tennyson]

Originally Posted by Plethon

Noel Ignatieff: How the Irish Became White

Originally Posted by Plethon

Noel Ignatieff: How the Irish Became White

Jew Noel Ignatiev: "The key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race -- in other words, to abolish the privileges of the white skin. Until that task is accomplished, even partial reform will prove elusive, because white influence permeates every issue, domestic and foreign, in U.S. society. The way to abolish the white race is to challenge, disrupt and eventually overturn the institutions and behavior patterns that reproduce the privileges of whiteness, including the schools, job and housing markets, and the criminal justice system. The abolitionists do not limit themselves to socially acceptable means of protest, but reject in advance no means of attaining their goal."

Ignatiev is a rabid Marxist who does not shy of academic fraud. His works aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

For the record, all Scarlett O'Haras of the South and the Irish soldiers in Robert. E. Lee's army probably did not know that the Irish were not White.

Nor Irish-American 19th century senators, governors and presidents.

Thomas Burke (governor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
William McKinley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DeWitt Clinton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Tennyson

For the record, all Scarlett O'Haras of the South and the Irish soldiers in Robert. E. Lee's army probably did not know that the Irish were not White.

Nor Irish-American 19th century senators, governors and presidents.

"[...] That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth."

--Benjamin Franklin, a "Founding Father" of the US of America--

Benjamin Franklin on "Whites"

Ignatiev is a rabid Marxist who does not shy of academic fraud.

So you two have much in common, for fraudulent and fallacious statements is what you have been doing all along.

Further, you are of the Protestant type who would agree with the WASP construct. And yet your Finnish and other ancestors would not fall under the Anglo-Saxon construct of White, as stated by one of the founding fathers of America.

All of your attempts at deceiving through fallacies and half-trues have been refuted and even turned against you, Tennyson. Why don't you leave us alone once and for all? We have nothing in common with you as, among other things, we believe in dignity and other high values, which are strange to you.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Breogan

Yes, the typical anti-German propaganda in WWI: German soldiers depicted as Asiatic Huns. It was used largely on posters and journals:

Here's another example of the anti-German propaganda wave. Imagine how much this deformed the character of millions of German Americans who were made to deny their own heritage and submit to bullying from their own government. Many of the WN crowd in the US are the children and grandchildren of just such people. That's why now they have no idea who they are as a people and lash out in impotent rage like psychiatric patients recovering from amnesia.

Ambassador James W. Gerard. A warning to German Americans, "Every citizen must declare himself American -- or traitor!"

I know that it is hard for Americans to realize the magnitude of the war in which we are involved. We have problems in this war no other nations have. Fortunately, the great majority of American citizens of German descent have, in this great crisis of our history, shown themselves splendidly loyal to our flag. Everyone had a right to sympathize with any warring nation. But now that we are in the war there are only two sides, and the time has come when every citizen must declare himself American -- or traitor!
We must disappoint the Germans who have always believed that the German-Americans here would risk their property, their children's future, and their own neck, and take up arms for the Kaiser. The Foreign Minister of Germany once said to me "your country does not dare do anything against Germany, because we have in your country 500,000 German reservists who will rise in arms against your government if you dare to make a move against Germany." Well, I told him that that might be so, but that we had 500,001 lamp posts in this country, and that that was where the reservists would be hanging the day after they tried to rise. And if there are any German-Americans here who are so ungrateful for all the benefits they have received that they are still for the Kaiser, there is only one thing to do with them. And that is to hog-tie them, give them back the wooden shoes and the rags they landed in, and ship them back to the Fatherland.
I have travelled this year over all the United States. Through the Alleghenies, the White Mountains, and the Catskills, the Rockies and the Bitterroot Mountains, the Cascades, the Coast Range, and the Sierras. And in all these mountains, there is no animal that bites and kicks and squeals and scratches, that would bite and squeal and scratch equal to a fat German-American, if you commenced to tie him up and told him that he was on his way back to the Kaiser.

There is an audio recording of this speech available on this website. Notice his harsh Yankee accent, which was typical of the time.

American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election

Another interesting link on the topic:

Digital History

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

In 1917-1918 (out of anti-German sentiment as result of the American involvment in the First world war)$:

Americans renamed sauerkraut "liberty cabbage"; dachshunds "liberty hounds"; and German measles "liberty measles."

In 2003:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.

Ditto for "french toast," which will be known as "freedom toast."
The name changes were spearheaded by two Republican lawmakers who held a news conference Tuesday to make the name changes official on the menus.

Across the country, some private restaurants have done the same.
"This action today is a small, but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France," said Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Committee on House Administration.

Ney, whose committee has authority over the House cafeterias, directed the change, after colleague Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, circulated a letter suggesting such a move. Jones said he was following the example of a local restaurant owner in his North Carolina district.

"I represent a district with multiple military bases that have deployed thousands of troops," Jones said in a statement. "As I've watched these men and women wave good-bye to their loved ones, I am reminded of the deep love they have for the freedom of this nation and their desire to fight for the freedom of those who are oppressed overseas. Watching France's self -serving politics of passive aggression in this effort has discouraged me more than I can say."