The “Tempest in the Wilderness, The Racialization of Savagery

The “Tempest in the Wilderness, The Racialization of Savagery

After reading The “Tempest” in the Wilderness, The Radicalization of Savagery, I believe that the author concludes that the violence that the English exerted, both over the Indians and the Irish was barbaric. I also feel that he provides relevant information about societal struggles and conflicts relevant to the time period in which these horrible acts took place.

Throughout reading all of these tails about Christopher Columbus and the brutality that was used over the Indians, as well as anyone else who was a different race or religion, what I don’t understand that most is how this was done to human beings appear to have been so innocent. While this may or may not be the case they are certainly portrayed in this reading as very benevolent figures that were more than willing and eager to meet Christopher Columbus and all the men that he brought with him.

The essay begins by stating, “In their first encounters with Europeans, the Indians tried to relate the strangers to what was familiar in their world”. How come the opposite was not true of the Europeans? What is it about the culture, values and religion of the Indians that made them welcoming and humble? What is it about the culture, values, and religion of the Europeans that made them look upon the Indians with such disgust?

I believe that it is these questions that form the base of racial and religious discrimination in today’s society. Even British laws and plays were influencing others views of people different then them. British law was forbidding marriage between the Irish and the colonizers and stated that the new world order was to be one of the English over the Irish. Also as this time, British play writers such as Shakespeare were influencing these views but including personal values and plays in popular plays. By so many people, both in the government and in the media of the time discriminating it was only a matter of time before two dichotomies were created.

The violence that was shown to the Irish was a foreshadowing of the violence that would be shown to the Indians. Shakespeare claimed that the Irish could be “nurtured” and could become civilized. Essentially what the visible difference between the English and the Irish was culture. The same was true of the English and the Indians. Whatever it was that made the English feel they were more sophisticated and cultured than another human being is beyond me but was the driving influence affecting the America’s today.

I like to believe that we have come so far in viewing other people as equals but its hard to not ignore that we have a long way to go. Just a few hundred years ago it was believed that some people were just “natural slaves”. While this may no longer be the consensus today discirimination is still very present in our society and I wonder if we will ever be able to full recover from the division the English and others have created all over the world.