by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
URBANNA —
In 1959 when I attended Randolph Macon Woman’s College in Virginia to become educated, a school that at the time was segregated by race and gender (which is no longer the case), I first learned I was a “Yankee WASP.”
I discovered I was a “Yankee” because I was from “Ohio” and a “WASP” because I was a “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.” These were new terms and I was surprised to discover that I was now placed in classifications according to where I came from, color of my skin, ethnic origin and religious tradition.
Why would anyone want to categorize me in such ways? I didn’t feel like a “Yankee Wasp.” I felt like a curious 18 year old just arriving to college. The label was concerning to me. I already knew what such a classification system had done to the Jews in Nazi Germany and I was not interested in ever being categorized.
I kept asking myself why would I be classified in such a way, but I could find no answer that made any sense.
My sophomore year I took Political Science taught by a professor by the name of Dr. Carter. We read political theory from Socrates on up. Through this class I first learned of the one party south of which Virginia was a part, the “Jim Crow” laws that had been passed by Democrats after the Civil War in order to suppress minority voting and the civil rights legislation that finally came about in the middle of the last century.
Our readings were not limited to American political theory. We read European thinkers and one day I came upon the Italian political theorist, Niccolo Machiavelli and his work titled “The Prince.”
“The Prince” advised how to best govern people. Divide them into territorial, racial, ethnic and religious groups and get them hating each other was the main thrust of his ideas. When groups are competing with each other, when they are constantly agitated, when they fight amongst themselves, then they will leave their leaders alone.
But if you don’t keep them constantly fighting amongst themselves, they might unite and go after you.
A united citizenry that has the power to resist its government is the greatest threat of all to politicians. It was true for the prince during royal times, it’s true for totalitarian governments that are ruled by an iron hand today and it is true for democracies.
The lights turned on. I suddenly understood why I was labeled a “Yankee WASP.” Soon more sub groups and hyphenated Americans came into style. We became Anglo-Americans, Italian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and African-Americans and so on. Each group was pitted against other groups and kept in a state of constant agitation. Leaders within groups led their group with passionate speeches designed to keep their members in constant uproar.
And yes, it should come to no surprise that crafty politicians encouraged sub groups to vote for one party or the other in a block.
Machiavelli’s brilliant art of governing the masses has worked well. An angry citizenry that is easy to manipulate blames each other for its woes and cannot see the politician’s wily schemes to keep the fires of agitation well lit. We, the people, don’t see it. We cannot see the forest for the trees.
Politicians use war, too, as a means of controlling people and holding on to power when domestic strife runs out of steam. It’s concerning that the electorate can be so easily manipulated and controlled by leaders.
I don’t like being classified as a Yankee or a WASP. My ancestors came to this country to become Americans, not Anglo Americans and certainly not Yankees.
I dislike being classified as to my once hometown, color of my skin, ethnic background and religious tradition. I didn’t like it 62 years ago when in college and I don’t like it now.
The sooner Americans stop allowing politicians to label and put us in boxes, the better off we will be.
I grieve this nation is so divided and I hope for a change in thinking before I leave this earth. (We better hurry things up because I am hitting 80 in September.)
Change includes less blaming other sub groups for our societal troubles and more understanding of problems our individual histories have caused us today and thinking for ourselves rather than allowing political leaders to manipulate us.
Can we break free the chains that tragically still enslave us today? Can we let go of territorial, racial, ethnic differences and religion and unite as one people to become one nation of un- hyphenated Americans?
Dearest fellow Americans, I’m betting on it!
(“The end of an era” series continues next week.)
© 2021.
