The video we watched today in class was a bit of an eye opener to me. As Americans, we feel like we have been the supremacy country for generations, and people should model our ideas, morals, values, beliefs etc. To most Americans, the only issue we feel strongly about, regarding racism, was the Civil War and slaving African Americans. In return, those unresolved feelings of hatred and judgement still continues towards African Americans, but for the most part the African American community, overtime, has gained equal rights that the "dominate" ethnicity, caucasians, obtain. Watching this video made me realize that us Americans do not take accountability for the other racist acts we have performed, such as the Japanese concentration camps. I myself was not knowledgeable of our behavior during this time and the mistreatment this group of people recieved. Being in this class, and being a social work student, I learn more and more each day of the hatred, criticism, stereotypes populations are being attacked with besides just the African American community that we feel is the only community, as I said, we have "unresolved feelings with." Times have changed, equality is inevitable in our society, but are individuals truly recieving the equality and respect they deserve? Or is injustice a trait Americans among the european descendent ancestory will never fully get passed?
"Times have changed, equality is inevitable in our society…"
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this I immediately thought of Bob Dylan’s song, The Times They Are a-Changin and the line that hits me hard is:
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
I know that we are/ have been coming onto a new road and that it’s not easy to walk it out. Injustice, while in this country is very racialized along particular groups, is found all over this world. My hope is that changes in injustice wouldn’t happen simply because time is passing and a society likes to think it’s “getting better”. Is that really change or simply forgetting something? History wouldn’t let us forget it in our heads, but even history is affected. That’s why I am so fond and appreciative of alternative histories, like Zinn’s People’s History of the US, which we read this last week. I have that book and it also has opened up my eyes about the history of peoples’ that we don’t really hear about in school. I too am learning so much from this class.