The Oxford English Dictionary's first recorded utterance of the word racism was by a man named Richard Henry Pratt in 1902. Who the heck was Richard Henry Pratt? I turn to a piece from NPR for the answer.
Instead of racism, Pratt is better remembered for coining the phrase “Kill the Indian...save the man.”
The Oxford English Dictionary's first recorded utterance of the word racism was by a man named Richard Henry Pratt in 1902. Who the heck was Richard Henry Pratt? I turn to a piece from NPR for the answer.
Instead of racism, Pratt is better remembered for coining the phrase “Kill the Indian...save the man.”
"A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one," Pratt said. "In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."
We're still living with the after-effects of what Pratt thought and did. His story serves as a useful parable for why discussions of racism remain so deeply contentious even now.”
Pratt advocated for the assimilation of Native Americans into white life and convinced Congress to let him try out his ideas.
Pratte pushed for the total erasure of Native cultures and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School would become a model for dozens of other boarding schools for Indian children.
If you are interested in the rest of this ghastly story, here is the link to the NPR story.
For now, I think the NPR conclusion said it best. “In the century since Pratt used the word racism, the term has become an abstraction. But always buried somewhere underneath it are actions with real consequences. Sometimes those outcomes are intended. Sometimes they're not. But it's the outcomes, not the intentions, that matter most in the end.”
The Oxford English Dictionary's first recorded utterance of the word racism was by a man named Richard Henry Pratt in 1902. Who the heck was Richard Henry Pratt? I turn to a piece from NPR for the answer.
Instead of racism, Pratt is better remembered for coining the phrase “Kill the Indian...save the man.”
"A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one," Pratt said. "In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."
We're still living with the after-effects of what Pratt thought and did. His story serves as a useful parable for why discussions of racism remain so deeply contentious even now.”
Pratt advocated for the assimilation of Native Americans into white life and convinced Congress to let him try out his ideas.
Pratte pushed for the total erasure of Native cultures and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School would become a model for dozens of other boarding schools for Indian children.
If you are interested in the rest of this ghastly story, here is the link to the NPR story.
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/01/05/260006815/the-ugly-fascinating-history-of-the-word-racism
For now, I think the NPR conclusion said it best. “In the century since Pratt used the word racism, the term has become an abstraction. But always buried somewhere underneath it are actions with real consequences. Sometimes those outcomes are intended. Sometimes they're not. But it's the outcomes, not the intentions, that matter most in the end.”