Assimilation

The chapter said assimilation was not possible because customs and traditions of Native Americans were “too alien.” How does that even make sense? To assimilate something is to make it adjust and/or adapt to a different way. If America was so “new,” then how were there already standards, rules, and regulations for it? Racial inequality is something I feel very strongly about and I find egocentrism to be very unacceptable. I do not necessarily agree or disagree with the author, considering I believe that he is only stating facts, not opinion. “The reservation policy aimed to ensure that Native Americans would be systematically educated and ‘civilised’ into the American way of life.” Everyone tried so hard to change the way people were to make them “White Americans.” When no one can really even define what that really is. Native Americans had to suffer the loss of their culture, tradition, self-belief and many other things. To look back on it now, I think assimilation is something that is unfair. You shouldn’t have to make someone, or a group of people, change the way they are in order for them to live somewhere.