This notion that “we” advanced peoples provided for the Natives, exactly the converse of the truth, is not benign. It reemerges time and time again in our history to complicate race relations. For example, we are told that white plantation owners furnished food and medical care for their slaves, yet every shred of food, shelter and clothing on the plantations was raised, built, woven, or paid for by black labor.

Today Americans believe as part of our political understanding of the world that we are the most generous nation on earth in terms of foreign aid, overlooking the fact that the net dollar flow from almost every Third World nation runs toward the United States.