I find it interesting that Michael-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur's pen name was, "J. Hector St. John. He chose a more English sounding name than a French one. His definition of who an American is is interesting. Although I don't believe that Americans are defined as European or a descendent, I can agree with his overall view that Americans become part of this melting pot of cultures and that it's inevitable. However, if someone of a different ethnicity is born into another country, that idea isn't limited to just one country or one people. How could that group be so unique?
"Majorities, or those who psychologically feel themselves to be majorities, don't really need to organize, and nowhere else in colonial America were such groups established by English people." I enjoy how the author points out that there are just some things groups of people were so convinced of, even though in the actual truth of it all is not true.
The idea of, "race relations" seems so obvious yet it's only obvious when it's read first. Relations can be good or bad but it doesn't mean they don't exist. It's sad that the Indians helped the English ultimately survive in the New World but nothing good came out of it. When I read, "Indians cease being Indians", it reminded me of the reading we did for homework and than discussed in class last week about. If my culture in any way became an endangered species of any sort, I'm not sure how I'd handle it. I'd probably learn the culture and language as best I can and pass it down t future generations even though they might not feel a direct relationship to it.
Whether or not a black person was a slave, free, or in between, they were still a prisoners to oppression.
"...most Americans had never seen a Catholic, which perhaps made them all the more frightening when they didn't begin to come a couple of generations after"
This statement makes Catholics look like a rare unicorn.
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