"I have accepted the country as the way it is and made my way. You can only claim the "victim" mentality for so long. After that you have to do for yourself."

This is the old American individualist cop-out.

Many of our people are not educated about the European invasion. Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. They need to hear the facts of the near genocide of the Native Americans, and the murder of thousands of African slaves,lest they think that we are "exceptions" to the crimes committed only by other, less noble folk.

The reeling fear and hostility that accompanied the 9-11 attacks are partly explained by American "exceptionalism:" "What have we done to deserve this? They hate us because of our freedoms!"

I fear it is a short step from "making one's way" to joining with the oppressor as in the case of Mexican-Americans backing the vigilante scum who would toss Mexicans out of territory stolen from their ancestors.