Manifest Destiny imagery erased the genocide behind westward development

Evidence

Of course, we now know that the soil was exhaustible after all, and that “developing” actually meant quickly depleting—as in, every old-growth tree in Oakland except for Old Survivor. The phrase “as if by magic” is a chilling erasure of the waves of straight-up genocide that ravaged indigenous populations in the nineteenth century. … While the tiny beings below her run for their lives, she wears a strange and benevolent expression aimed not at them but at something else in the distance—the imagined target of progress. It’s only with her gaze fixed on this target that she can trample on hundreds of species and thousands of years’ worth of knowledge without ever breaking her pallid smile. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 635

Categorization

• XREF: The benevolent-gaze-wrecking-image structure parallels the Frankfurt School reading of enlightenment as progress that destroys — feeds the same critique lineage. — connects to: Manifest destiny deployed civilization-savagery metaphors tying racism to anthropocentrism — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1194; Colonial development rhetoric masked systematic resource extraction from native lands. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 78; Sacralized nationalist myth suppresses concrete land history and indigenous presence — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 355 (+5 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Manifest destiny deployed civilization-savagery metaphors tying racism to anthropocentrism — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1194; Colonial development rhetoric masked systematic resource extraction from native lands. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 78; Sacralized nationalist myth suppresses concrete land history and indigenous presence — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 355 (+5 more)