Week 6 – Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics

This week I would like to directly comment on the questions that Jon asks in his lecture video.

  1. How does a history of slavery affect the Americas today?
    • Even though in a perfect world, there would be no prejudice, hate or discrimination against different races, this is sadly not the case in the current world that we are living in. With the situations of police brutality against young black men, to the misrepresentation of people of colour in hollywood, (two vastly different issues, but both based in racial prejudice) it is very clear that we as a society have a long long way to go when it comes to settling racial differences. In slave times, black people from Africa were brought to the americas and treated as sub-standard human beings. In ways, this mind set has absolutely carried over to modern times. Recent events in Charlottesville Virginia with white nationalist neo-nazis marching with torches just exemplifies how backwards some people’s way of thinking is. The struggle for acceptance and equality for people of colour is still very much going on in the 21st century.
  2. Are there other examples of unresolved conflicts or tensions that linger on into the present?
    • Yes of course. Recently, a new show came out on Netflix called “Dear White People”. This show is a brilliant look into the lives of black students in a University setting, touching on so many important issues such as the ignorance of white students to black issues, interracial relationships, black lives matter movement, and university administration denying that there is a problem with equality and discrimination on its campus. I think that this show is an extremely important commentary on how racism is still very much alive and well, even though it may not look like the “traditional” sense of racism. Even with the new Trump administration, I believe that his message and attitude incites violence and hatred. Neo-Nazis marching with torches should absolutely not even be an idea in people’s minds in this day and age, but look where we are.
  3. How might we do justice to such histories? 
    • I think that to some extent, there is a certain amount of denial that there is racism still going on today. In order to remedy this, I believe that education is the key. Its white people learning about histories of different cultures and races, and just being better in the future. I am not going to say that “I don’t see colour” because of course I do. Everyone sees colour. What I am saying though, is that we must notice that we all have different skin tones and colours, and that we all have different cultures associated with our colours, but the next step is to acknowledge the differences, be aware of the differences, but still move past them. I have enough faith in humanity that we can eventually find the love and patience in our hearts to truly try to understand one another and move forward into a place of peace and inclusion.

1 thought on “Week 6 – Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics

  1. Ruze Guvenc

    I really like that you did not take the stance of “I don’t see colour”, because this concept of “colourblindness” is a new and very dangerous phenomenon in the Americas. It completely ignores the systematic barrier that people of colour experience and talks about equality in an unrealistic sense. Race is real and we do all see it, we need to acknowledge this difference so we can discuss the inequalities and multifaceted oppression poc face so we can work on changing it. Colourblind America is much more dangerous for minorities because it pretends like everything is okay and we are all the same, completely ignoring the immense effects settler colonialism still has on the Americas.

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