Sunday, October 16, 2011
Racism
Miller seems overly defensive of Lincoln, especially related to matters of racism. He keeps pointing out that the term "racism" had not yet been coined in Lincoln's time, but does that really matter? Racism did exist, it just didn't have a name. I don't see the harm in pointing out possible racism of Lincoln using our modern language. A lot of people excuse prejudice by saying that the person was "a product of their time". Racism was widespread during Lincoln's life (and still is), but if there were people questioning it then, then why didn't he? I don't think the time period is a very good excuse (I know there have been discussions in class and on the blogs about this topic but I am just forming my opinion now so that's why I haven't responded to anyone in particular).
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Yes! Thank you for posting this! This is something I keep coming back to as well. If Lincoln was a truly moral man, the norms of his society shouldn't matter - he still should have seen that it was wrong to treat human beings as inferior. After all, Lincoln was not influenced by the norms of his day in regard to many other things (for example, drinking), so why should he be influenced by this?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this! Even though there was no term for racism at this point in history, one could argue (and that includes myself) Racism goes as far back as even the Roman Empire, or even before. With regard to your statement about someone being a product of their time, I feel that there is some truth to this statement however. I personally do not feel that Lincoln was a racist, but do almost think that he was a product of his time. Racism itself was a product of his time. The popular and even accepted practice at this time was racism towards African Americans.
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