Though slavery is not widely accepted throughout the Americas, the ideology behind it still exists. It exists in the way of racism, where people across the continent believe that they are inherently superior based on racial differences. For this week’s blog, I would like to explore how the history of slavery still affects us to this day. I want to discuss this because I find this part of this week’s unit quite impacting.
It would be difficult to argue that a person that enslaves another being, regarding them as property and forcing them to obey, does not think themselves to be superior. It seems impossible to have that amount of power over someone else and not be corrupted under it. Fortunately, we have been able to move away from that norm more than a century ago. Though, I suggest that slavery comes hand-in-hand with racism, racism is not necessarily tied to slavery.
Throughout the lecture video, Professor Jon asked us to meditate on a question, “How does the History of Slavery shape the Americas today?” As mentioned above, racism seems to have been further developed out of slavery. Another point is that history has played a part into today’s Latin American culture. For example, there sometimes is tension between the indigenous peoples, people of european ancestors, and afro-latinos, because one group does not see the other as “latino” enough. (Of course that begs to question, what does it mean to be latino then? But the answer is sort of the point of this whole course.) Anyways, to specify, there is this quiet belief that I have heard amongst latinos that South Americans look down on Central Americans. Possibly because people from Central America are seen to be more connected to indigenous culture, while South Americans are more “white”. Though in some cases true, it can also be deemed as ridiculous as South Americans have had a great native community, ranging from the north in Ecuador with the Waorani peoples, to south Chile where Mapuches are from.
It came to my mind throughout the lecture that sometimes one hears people say things like “it’s time to move on” But how is that possible? How is it possible for thousands of people to forget years of trauma while the people who insinuate things like that are still reaping the benefits? It’s almost a constant reminder of the past. For that reason, the history of slavery still affects everybody because that is how deeply ingrained it was.
Question: What was the determining cause for women in North America to fight for equal rights while women Latin America, like Judith, to ridicule it?
