Week 5 - Anika Troeger - Section A03

Anika Troeger

ASA 002

Section A03

Week 5: Imperial University

The United States has been a country that has been influenced by its European predecessors in many aspects, but especially when it comes to nationalism and the usual result of it - imperialism. European countries have been known to colonize and completely dominate other countries, third-world countries they view as weaker than them. The United States has done the same with countries such as the Philippines, annexing them against their will, and with Japan where they forcefully set up a military base in Okinawa. The U.S. has also been involved in wars that have little to do with them, such as the Vietnam War, acting as if them getting involved was the best thing for the world, when in actuality they mainly added to the large numbers of casualties.

Members of the U.S. military have become desensitized to violence against minorities due to these wars, they view minorities as the enemy, or as easy targets. According to Darrell Hamamoto in his piece “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence”, many serial killers and mass murderers have been ex-military servicemen, and a majority of their targets were minorities or women - people they viewed to be weak. They believed that they were in the right to use excessive force and brutal methods against these people.

The imperialistic ideas of the U.S. have been ingrained into its society - we are one of the world’s superpowers and are stronger than other countries according to these ideas. This way of thinking makes the government believe they are always right to do what they want for they are the ultimate power, and they like showing off this power. Relentlessly bombing other countries is okay when the U.S. government does it, but the simple threat of a “terrorist” coming into our country is enough to start public outrage. When citizens protest against this type of rule, the government fights back. For example, as referenced in Sunaina Maira’s piece, the “Imperial University”, university students who protested against Israel’s unjust conflict with Palestine were met with legal repercussions - the government supports Israel. During protests on University of California campuses, SWAT teams and the National Guard were sent in to keep protesters at bay, despite the protests being non-violent.

There is no reason for the government to be so harsh with it’s people, those it is supposed to protect. The people protesting do not agree with the imperialist ideas the government is still pushing and are exercising their right to free speech. The United States may have been imperialist from the beginning, but free speech is much more vital for a country to prosper than the taking over of other countries.

Question: What happened to free speech? Why aren’t more people alarmed with the government’s growing attempts to silence opposition?

Boggs, C. (2013). Masters of War Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire. New York: Taylor and Francis.

Chatterjee, P., & Maira, S. (2014). Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Boundless. (2016). American Imperialism. [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-gilded-age-1870-1900-20/american-imperialism-164/american-imperialism-896-3410/