ch 2 takaki

In chapter two of A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki, it is shown how groups other than Native Americans faced early racism. This group was the Irish. The were viewed as savages to the English people. In battle, the English would kill “man, woman, and child.” The English would burn crops and villages when they would battle the Irish people. Irish were also not allowed to wear English clothes. Irish people were considered savages because they lacked manners and did not have any prior knowledge of God. This was considered naïve of them too not believe in such a thing as God. Takaki states that the main difference between the Natives and the Irish was their skin color and cultural. After Takaki relates Natives to Irish he goes on to talk about how the Natives were treated. He gives examples of the brutality of the English towards the Natives. He says in one instance Natives were killed by poisonous wine when they were trying to have a peace talk with the English. The thing that removed these actions from the conscience of the English was that they thought of the Natives as a different species. One other difference between the Irish and Natives is that the English believed that the Irish could become socialized while the Natives were a lost cause. There was no use in trying to change the native people to act like the English. Takaki says one of the reasons behind this was the skin color. The skin color prevented the English from seeing Natives as real people.

This is terrible to me. I can see how early people would prejudice people when they look different, but the Irish resembled the English and that would leave them no reasons to dislike the Irish. I am really against prejudice and can not see how these people felt so much; however, they did not think like people think in this time period. The history in the book by Takaki is taken out of context. The people who settled in the Americas had to deal with fear of getting killed by the Natives. They were merely trying to protect themselves. When they weren’t trying to protect themselves they were trying to further develop this barren country and trying to find new ground, which would make them more powerful than neighboring nations such as France and Germany.