Oct 20, 2010
Parallels Between Roosevelt and Nazism
One aspect of this reading that really jumped out at me was how similar many of Roosevelt's beliefs were to those of the Nazis in the 1930's. Ideas of the perfect society, racial purity, competition and the necessity of expansion that are present in Roosevelt's writings were also present in much of Nazi propaganda. Also, ideas of the family and the importance of female fertility to the nation as a whole that were frequent in Roosevelt's "No race suicide here" was also present in Nazism. I guess I just found it interesting how we despise the Nazi idea of society, at the turn of the century (and perhaps even longer after that), our leaders wholly endorsed these principles as well. Thoughts?
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I think that a surprising number of American leaders actually supported Hitler and his ideologies right up until it became economically/politically prudent to oppose him. The policies and ideas espoused by the Nazi regime have chilling similarities to even modern America. Under Bush, for instance, was the kind of forced obedience that said that speaking out against the war or the state was next to an act of treason, and would and could place you squarely on the side of the 'terrorists'. We have not escaped these tropes in our culture.
I think that the most telling point in the article which really drives home the comparison to Nazism is the section regarding TR's views on Japanese immigrants. TR feared them because, on the "racial hierarchy," they were too close to Whites for comfort, and could potentially threaten them in terms of manliness, whereas other races where the supposed "gap" was greater -- such as Latinos or Blacks -- were not a threat but something of an uncivilized asset. This belief naturally TR's policy that Japanese immigration should be banned whereas Latino immigration was useful to the US.
Conversely, the Nazis saw essentially all outsiders as a threat, particularly those furthest from the "German" race on their "racial scale" such as Jews, Gypsies, or Homosexuals who bore the brunt of the persecution. Other European "races" such as the Dutch or Czechs did not encounter the same level of destruction despite their ability, from TR's point of view, to better compete with the Germans than the Gypsies might have been able to. To me, this indicates a difference that developed between the turn of the century and the 1930s from exploitation to extermination (in the name of racial purification).
I was also really surprised to be reading this idea of racial purification from TR. The way I learned about him in high school history (and I'm guessing other people too) was that he was a pretty good president, with his national parks system and so forth. And I just naively accepted that he was a cool frontiersman who cared about nature. The fact is a lot of this eugenics kind of attitude in American history is covered up, and so my class learned about TR as a manly frontiersman instead of a guy who endorsed American white supremacy. A lot of people are surprised when they hear that the eugenics movement started in America, and that's because America's history in racial purification has always been concealed and downplayed. It makes me wonder if Hitler had instead been American how much differently we'd be approaching his actions. I mean, I'm not implying that Americans would have just repressed his history like TR, other presidents, etc, or that any of these American examples are even remotely close to the magnitude of Nazism, but it definitely would have been...different.
I think that Hitler definitely took his ideas of race superiority to the extreme but at the same time, these ideas are not new and not unique to these leaders. As we've discussed in class, people like TR were in a way socially policed into absorbing these ideas of masculinity/racial purity. This uncritical belief in superior/inferior groups of people is nothing new and continues to pervade all societies (though to different degrees) today. They take on different nuances/forms but racism/sexism is still alive and well. We still endorse these principles today through ideas of who a "real American" is.
I think it speaks to the longevity of ideologies that get framed and reframed and evolve in our history through politics and leaders. TR himself was not solely responsible for the creation white superior civilization, but it was an evolving though time from his childhood with already present discourses of humans, nature and civilization. As a leader of a nation, his ideologies had an effect on shaping and furthering America’s racial and supreme power ideologies. At he turn of the century his domestic and foreign policies were framed around his racial civilization policies that had long lasting effects. So the influences of the racial power maybe also went beyond the borders of the U.S. In Cuba after independence, the US influence and hegemonic power it had over poltical, economic and social life in Cuba had deep effects for the Afro-Cuban population. Those Afro-Cubans who were deeply involved in fighting for their independence, were repressed from politics, jobs and the Afro-Cuban identify. As Cuba became independent, America influence changed the lives of Cubans drastically and “whitening” polices ensued.
I also had a few wandering thoughts about the connections the article had with Nazism. While America has never commited such attrocities like the concentration camps, it is wrong for us to assume that something like it has never or will never happen in this country. Manifestations of the societal problem present themselves in varying ways, but the nationalistic root is the same. 100 years from now, we will likely look back on certain governmental policies of today and be equally convicted of their wrongness or foolishness. Roosevelt probably never thought of himself as being racist, but clearly he never was able to get out of sounding and acting like it! As a white person, what a crazy time in history in must have been for Roosevelt to make respectful political decisions for the good of the society. After all, in a time of such sweeping social change, what was good for one group was terrible for another.
I've always wondered if slavery isn't the US equivalent of what happened in Nazi Germany. I don't know the exact number of slaves, but I believe it was in the millions in north america alone. It also occurred over a longer period of time so it doesn't seem as dramatic (for lack of a better term) as the holocaust. But I'm not sure that matters. In both instances, a specific group was identified as different, inferior, etc., and thus deemed disposable.
It's helpful to read TR today and understand how notions of race, gender, and civilization - i.e. difference - have been formed over time. At the same time, it is disturbing that these ideas of, perhaps not an ideal race, but of inferior races persist in the present.
Arendt and Fanon take the production of difference further to illustrate what can happen when certain groups are dehumanized. They are particularly useful in understanding Arizona’s immigration law in terms of the production and convenience/usefulness of difference.
The first link is a NPR story about the role of CCA, a private prison company, in developing the law. In 1997 (2nd link), CCA was quoted as saying, “If we build it, they will come.” CCA was referring to a private prison they built in California without first obtaining a contract, what’s referred to as speculative private prison construction.
The gist of the NPR story is that CCA approached an AZ official with a proposal to build a prison that would house immigrant women and children. According to the article, the law came into being shortly thereafter.
When I read this, it reminded me of the camps Arendt refers to that were close to dying out if not for the “20,000 new arrivals” (438).
NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741
1997 article: http://articles.sfgate.com/1997-08-01/news/17754657_1_prison-guards-prison-business-prison-construction
It is very scary that a U.S. president shared a vision similar to that of the man who carried out a devastating and horrific genocide in Nazi Germany, I also noted some similarities, how Hitler did not even match the "Aryan" description of blonde hair and blue eyes, since he had dark hair and eyes, while also Teddy was not a masculine man, yet he wanted a nation of masculine men. Yet the ideas of a an ideal society continue to exist, with the fears of "immigrants, and anchor babies" the message being sent is that those people are undesirable, since there is always talk about how in a couple of years, the white population will no longer be a majority in CA and in the U.S., this alarms many people, and that is the most frightening part, that people are still afraid of inclusion and diversity.
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