Last week, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum drew criticism for his remarks during a speech for the conservative group Young America’s Foundation. He is quoted as stating “We birthed a nation from nothing,” he said. “I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.” Mr. Santorum also went on to add that the United States is largely unchanged since it was birthed by “Judeo-Christian” values and that the continent was settled by people who were “coming to practice their faith.”
Mr. Santorum’s speech echoes the revisionist European history of the Americas, and the view that Native American groups were uncivilized, backwater peoples who had done nothing useful for humanity. This distorted, and culturally imperialistic perception of indigenous groups has persisted for hundreds of years throughout European culture. The term itself, “cultural imperialism” first emerged in the late 19th Century, and is characterized by the subjugation of indigenous groups justified by ethnocentrism and social Darwinism. Social Darwinism was a self-serving, mangling of Darwin’s original theory of “survival of the fittest” used widely to account for acts of imperialism, eugenics, racism, and the imposition of social hierarchies. Apparently, these individuals neglected to pay attention to Darwin’s actual theory that fitness relates to getting our genes into the next generation, and does not have anything to do with the subjugation of “weaker” peoples. Fitness is about reproduction.
Mr. Santorum’s comments could have come straight out of the 1800s, and make a clear statement that social Darwinism is still alive and well. This is certainly disturbing. If we look at history, the founding fathers obviously saw nothing of value in the culture and society of Native American groups, believing them uncivilized, ignorant savages who had nothing to offer humanity. Our nation’s first presidents all pushed policies designed to transform native groups into replicas of White America, to transform them into “civilized” citizens, or to make them disappear altogether. And this is one of the more heart-breaking, and brutal legacies of our nation.
I could argue the countless contributions that Native American culture has given our nation and the world, from mathematics, architecture, art, agriculture, and astronomy. But this is not the point. The point is that today, in the 21st Century, we are still grappling with ethnocentrism and social Darwinism. The argument that “there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture” is absolutely absurd and is characteristic of cultural imperialist thinking. Mr. Santorum’s remarks illustrate a prevailing worldview tied to a Western perspective, implying the superiority of Western culture over all others.
Mt. Santorum is grossly incorrect. Until we acknowledge that other cultures cannot be judged according to what one culture says is valued and what is not, we won’t get very far in celebrating diversity and recognizing the contributions of the multitude of peoples who populate our globe. It’s time to dump social Darwinism.