Founding-era unity rhetoric was a conscious misrepresentation of American diversity

Evidence

Publius (here, John Jay) wrote, “Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs.” This description of identity was a misrepresentation then, as it is now—consciously so, as we know from reading Madison’s Federalist essays on factions in America. Publius would have known that Catholics predominated in Maryland and Congregationalists in Massachusetts, the slave economy in Georgia and independent farmers in Maine. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 146

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The United States reversed its historic promotion of unity toward diversity promotion — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 847; Racial ideology obscured America’s class divisions with a myth of unity.; A founding equality creed makes racism a psychological contradiction for citizens — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2126 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Presidents historically used aspirational unity rhetoric that exceeded current facts #corroborates (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 147
• American sincerity about race is itself a lie that papers over identity’s founding contradiction #expands (0.85) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 513
• Racial ideology obscured America’s class divisions with a myth of unity. #complicates (0.80)
• A founding equality creed makes racism a psychological contradiction for citizens #complicates (0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2126
• A racist view of political legitimacy has persisted since America’s founding #expands (0.80) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 625
• The United States reversed its historic promotion of unity toward diversity promotion #qualifies (0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 847