Rightists complain that organizations which support the idea of La Raza are supposedly "anti-American" and pose a threat to society. The irony is that Thomas Jefferson—the author of the Declaration of Independence and our third President (far from being an "anti-American")—would have been an outspoken proponent of La Raza if he was alive today.
The romantic use of the phrase 'La Raza' originates with José Vasconcelos in the 1920s. In contrast to Eurocentrists at the time, who tried to use 'la raza' as an exclusive term to refer to Hispanic "whites", Vasconcelos understood that the New World contains a mixture of all the Old World ethnicities and civilizations as well as the blood and culture of indigenous New Worlders. La Raza is the new, unique, combination which has resulted from the integration of all the world's ethnicities and cultures in the New World.
Importantly, La Raza was not just a word to describe the present-day ethnic mixes and variation, but an idealistic concept which would only truly be achieved in the future. Vasconcelos envisioned a "Cosmic Race" (La Raza Cósmica)—where all the best elements of Old and New World blood and culture can combine to form a race of unsurpassable quality. In this sense, the New World is not a mere melting pot of mixing without respect to quality, but a distillation tower where only the highest and noblest elements arrive at the pinnacle.
Vasconcelos and 21st century La Raza proponents were heavily influenced by Latin American society, where mixing has occurred to a much greater extent than the Anglosphere countries of the US and Canada. However, had Jefferson's policies and vision not been trampled on by Andrew Jackson and generations of other racists, the US could have been more in tune with its New World roots and psychologically distanced itself from Western Civilization to the extent that Latin American nations have been striving to do. In contrast to Jackson's policy of Indian Removal (which rapidly turned into the ethnic cleansing of an entire continent), Jefferson consistently advocated for Native American Integration—which would have marked the true break between the US being a Western colony and becoming a New World civilization populated by individuals of the cosmic race.
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The following are authentic Thomas Jefferson quotes demonstrating just how important he believed Native Americans were to American society.
For many further examples, refer to the Reading List page with quotes regarding Native Americans:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/p/reading-list-native-american-quotes.html#Jefferson
"This letter being unofficial, and private, I may with safety give you a more extensive view of our policy respecting the Indians, that you may better comprehend the parts dealt out to you in detail through the official channel... [O]ur settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the United States or remove beyond the Mississippi. The former is certainly the termination of their history most happy for themselves. But in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love.
...I have given you this view of the system which we suppose will best promote the interests of the Indians and of ourselves, and finally consolidate our whole country into one nation only, that you may be enabled the better to adapt your means to the object." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Henry Harrison. February 27, 1803.
"From the moment I came into the administration, I have looked upon you with the same good will as my own fellow citizens, have considered your interests as our interests, and peace and friendship as a blessing to us all. ...[T]emperance, peace, and agriculture, will raise you up to what your forefathers were, will prepare you to possess property, to wish to live under regular laws, to join us in our government, to mix with us in society, and your blood and ours united, will spread again over the great island." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Miamis, Potawatamies, Delawares, and Chippewas. December 21, 1808.
"It is so long since our forefathers came from beyond the great water, that we have lost the memory of it, and seem to have grown out of this land, as you have done. ...We are all now of one family, born in the same land, and bound to live as brothers; and the strangers from beyond the great water are gone from among us. ...Let us employ ourselves, then, in mutually accommodating each other." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Osage Nation. July 16, 1804.
"Altho' you will receive, thro' the official channel of the War Office, every communication necessary to develop to you our views respecting the Indians, ...to understand my personal dispositions and opinions in this particular, I shall avail myself of this private letter to state them generally. ...In truth, the ultimate point of rest & happiness for them is to let our settlements and theirs meet and blend together, to intermix, and become one people. Incorporating themselves with us as citizens of the U.S., this is what the natural progress of things will of course bring on, and it will be better to promote than to retard it. Surely it will be better for them to be identified with us, and preserved in the occupation of their lands, than be exposed to the many casualties which may endanger them while a separate people." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Hawkins. February 18, 1803.
"You will unite yourselves with us, join our great councils, and form one people with us, and we shall all be Americans. You will mix with us by marriage. Your blood will run in our veins, and will spread with us over this great island." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Captain Hendrick Aupaumut, the Delawares, Mohiccons, and Munsies. December 21, 1808.
"You know, my friend, the benevolent plan we were pursuing here for the happiness of the aboriginal inhabitants in our vicinities. ...They would have mixed their blood with ours, and been amalgamated and identified with us within no distant period of time. On the commencement of our present war, we pressed on them the observance of peace and neutrality, but the interested and unprincipled policy of England has defeated all our labors..." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Alexander von Humboldt. December 6, 1813.
Based on Jefferson's private letters to friends, his advocacy of integration was not simply a political matter, nor was it solely a short-term ethical matter. It was much larger than that. Integration was a critical aspect to ensure that the quality of character of future generations of Americans would constantly be improving.
"The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an Ethical, rather than a political object. The whole piece is a moral exhortation, and this passage particularly seems to be a reproof to man, who, while with his domestic animals he is curious to improve the race by employing always the finest male, pays no attention to the improvement of his own race, but intermarries with the vicious, the ugly, or the old, for considerations of wealth or ambition. ...Theognis seems to recommend from the example of our sheep and asses, would doubtless improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and produce a race of veritable aristoi [aristocrats]. For experience proves that the moral and physical qualities of man, whether good or evil, are transmissible in a certain degree from father to son. But I suspect that the equal rights of men will rise up against this privileged Solomon, and oblige us to continue acquiescence under the [the degeneration of the race of men] which Theognis complains of, and to content ourselves with the accidental aristoi produced by the fortuitous concourse of breeders.
For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Formerly bodily powers gave place among the aristoi. But since the invention of gunpowder has armed the weak as well as the strong with missile death, bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness and other accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction. There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. ...May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent it's ascendancy." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Adams. October 28, 1813.
Had Jefferson been around to read Vasconcelos's work, no doubt he would have considered the Cosmic Race to be that "natural aristocracy" which would one day be manifested by American society. With Native American blood flowing in the veins of the average US citizen, the best and most noble elements contributed by Native American, European, and all other ancestral groups would rise to the top, while the ignoble components of all groups would be discarded.
White Supremacists fear La Raza because it would mean a decrease of the proportion of "white" ancestry in the average citizen; but for those of us who aren't racist, for those who value cultural and biological QUALITY over ethnic identity, intuitively, the attainment of the Cosmic Race has always been the higher purpose behind E Pluribus Unum.
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Membership in La Raza is not something which Americans should fear—it is what our country was always meant to be. Rightists' contempt for this destiny demonstrates that they don't value an authentically American Civilization, but only Eurocentric Western Civilization. In quite the most literal sense, Eurocentrism is anti-American.
The Western colony of New Albion (supported by Calhoun) vs the American Civilization of a new Atlantis (supported by Jefferson). Who are you rooting for?
It's funny that Jefferson talked about miscegenation and anti-racism when he was a slaveowner. Actually, the miscegenation is appropriate, because he fathered children with his slaves.
ReplyDeleteTechnically, the genetic evidence is inconclusive as to whether it was Thomas or a close relative who was the father. But, yes, his inability do to something as simple as give up his slaves certainly puts a damper on what was otherwise some of the most powerful American idealism of the era.
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