Quotessence
Home / Authors / Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Robert A. Williams, Jr.

Robert A. Williams, Jr. Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllSupreme CourtThinkingWesternDecisionJusticePeopleWorldGivingMeanReasonSavageryTryingWarCitingExerciseHistoricalHorribleHuman RightsImportantIndigenous

Famous Robert A. Williams, Jr. Quotes

“Western civilization has been at war with tribalism for 3,000 years. And that war was brought to the New World by the English colonists. A very early point in American law Chief Justice John Marshall is asked to decide the status of Indian tribes. And what he does. He calls them savages who lack the same rights as the white people who came over here, the Europeans, and colonized their land under this, what many Americans might regard as an obscure legal doctrine called the Doctrine of Discovery. But it is still the most important doctrine in American constitutional law.”

PeopleWorldImportantWarJusticeWesternObscure
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Create image

“What John Marshall says is that right of occupancy can be taken away by purchase, conquest or any other means. So the reason that this case Johnson v. M'Intosh is so important is it really sets the foundation for this radical approach to understanding the basic human rights of Indian people to hold and control the lands that they occupy. It gives the US government the right to relocate, it stands at the bottom of the ethnic cleansing campaigns, for example, in the removal era.”

PeopleGivingMeanImportantReasonUnderstandingTakenBottomHuman RightsRadicalConquestRemoval
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Create image

“If you're an Indian, you could be very anxious about some of the Supreme Court's decisions, some of the decisions of policy makers, so maybe a little bit of irony there. But I think our "Savage Anxieties," when I titled the book, I really wanted to focus people on the challenge that tribes in this country, as well as indigenous peoples around the world, are confronting Western civilization with.”

PeopleThinkingWorldBookCountryChallengesDecisionFocusPolicyAnxietyWesternIronyAnxiousSupreme CourtIndigenousIndigenous People
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Create image