MURFREESBORO — The
role of racism in helping the United States win the Mexican War is the topic of
the next “MTSU On the Record” radio program.
Host Gina Logue’s interview with Brady Holley, a lecturer in
the Department of History, will air from 9:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, May 30, and
from 6 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, June 4, on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.
Holley’s research, titled “I Never Shall Be a White Man
Again: Race and Junior Officers in the Mexican War,” was published in the
October 2016 edition of the academic journal “War and Society.”
The professor discovered through examination of letters,
diaries and other documents that the intense training required to become a
junior officer did not necessarily result in a greater understanding of the
enemy than that of the ordinary soldier. In fact, the U.S. Army was replete
with racism in its views of the Mexican people.
Holley said that American soldiers and officers both had
less negative views of Mexicans who were descended from the Spanish
conquistadores who conquered Mexico in the 1500s.
“In their physical appearance, they tended to be lighter,”
said Holley. “These officers were very aware of … levels of whiteness, and, so,
the lighter-skinned someone tended to be, the more they attributed that person
to being of European stock or European heritage.”
The Mexican War lasted from 1846 to 1848 and resulted in
U.S. acquisition of the modern-day states of California, Nevada, Utah and Texas,
most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma and
Colorado.
To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, go to http://bit.ly/mtsu-otr.
For more information, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or
WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.
No comments:
Post a Comment