America Stole Mexican Lands Because We’re Racists

Here’s some more BS I learned at university.

 Today in Cultural Anthropology we recieved a handout entitled “Race.” It included 10 points about racism in America. Here is #8:

Race justified social inequalities as natural. As the race idea evolved, white superiority became “common sense” in America. It justified not only slavery but also the extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Racial practices were institutionalized within American government, laws, and society.

Now, I have no problems accepting all of that as fact. That is, all of it but the bolded part.

Race had nothing to do with America acquiring lands from Mexico. Mexican land was acquired because of the Mexican-American War, which ended with US troops occupying Mexico City. In return for the troops leaving Mexico and bringing the war to an end, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. In that treaty, Mexico agreed to give up the lands of California, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico. In return, the US would assume the debt of Mexico owed to US citizens, and pay the country of Mexico $15 million, which was half the price offered by the US before the war began.

And who was it that started the Mexican-American War? It was Mexico, who in the words of President Polk “invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil.”

Thank goodness I’m a History major.