I need help in english?

Question

hi, can you summarize the passage? what is the theme? sorry I can't understande english that well.

"Americans have made themselves notorious by the shrillness and the brutality with which they have insisted on this idea, but they did not invent it; and it has escaped the world's notice that those very excesses of which Americans have been guilty imply a certain, unprecedented uneasiness over the idea's life and power, if not, indeed, the idea's validity. The idea of white supremacy rests simply on the fact that white men are the creators of civilization and are therefore civilization's guardians and defenders. Thus it was impossible for Americans to accept the blakc man as one of themselves, for to do so was to jeopardize their status as white men. But not so to accept him was to deny his human reality, his human weight and complexity, and the strain of denying the overwhelmingly undeniable force Americans into rationalizations so fantastic that they approached the pathological.

Answer 1

Well to summarize, I would have to say that the person who wrote this statement was simply trying to say that the ideal of white supremacy is that the white man is the creator of all civilized society.  By that right they have assumed that any other race, namely black people, do not have the capacity for civility and therefore are savage and need to be guided as children down the path of civilization.  I personally find it funny how white supremacist never realized how long the African nation survived and grew without their so-called civilizing.

Answer 2

I'm an American with a master's degree and I have trouble understanding that passage, so don't feel bad. It is poorly written.

The theme is white supremacy. Summary: Ignorant white people think they are better than blacks. In the past, the most fanatic defense of this position has resulted in inhumane brutality.

Sorry to report this--I am a white American and ashamed of this treatment of blacks and other minorities, especially in a country that claims to be the melting pot of civilization.

Answer 3

This is a forum for homeschoolers.