Assimilation through Self-Assertion

Aspects of African American and Welsh Thought in the Nineteenth Century

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3852404
AutoresDorie G Williams (0000-0002-8744-1479, Swansea University, autor de correspondencia), Daniel G Williams
Año2010
Volumen8
Número2
Páginas107-125
Fecha de publicación2010-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaComparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/147757010x12677983681352
OpenAlexW2009584017
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas20

In this article, the aim is to problematize the common distinction made between 'assimilationism' and 'nationalism' by exploring the liberatory dimension within assimilationist thought in nineteenth century Wales and African America. Whereas what we might call the 'conservationist nationalism' of Michael D. Jones (in Wales) and Martin Delany (in America) sought to preserve what they deemed to be valuable in their people's cultures, the assimilationism of Samuel Roberts and Frederick Douglass may best be conceived of as a 'contributionist nationalism' that saw the distinctive characteristics of all peoples as significant ingredients in the making of a human civilization envisioned in universalist terms. The common contrast made between nationalism and assimilationism is too simplistic to account for the positions adopted by Roberts and Douglass. In never losing sight of the universal terrain on which to locate their arguments for social and cultural advancement, Douglass and Roberts can be seen to have embraced a position that would later be described by W. E. B. Du Bois as 'assimilation through self-assertion'

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Assertion · Civilization · Cultural assimilation · Ethnic group · Ethnocentrism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Welsh · Anthropology · Australian History and Society · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society