Post 5

In order to properly absorb information, one should consider reflecting upon his or her recent experiences. My father grew up in Warren Michigan, just outside Detroit; quite possibly the most racist of all northern cities inside the United States. Lynching’s, police violence, and race riots were a part of life for minorities in Detroit. Looking back, my dad does not blame any of them for the race riots. The police really did treat minorities in a terrible fashion. I found it simultaneously amusing and horrifying that people in general are so unaware of the world outside their little box. Can people truly be blamed for their ignorance to matters that do not concern them? I say they should be, but it is not practical to do so. Unless society was to undergo a radical change, most people will continue to only see the world inside their own little box.

In my family history paper I learned that my family was not held back by any racial prejudice at all. My family did well due to the efforts of Bernard Spero after the Civil War. His wise land investments and farming allowed the family to prosper. I believe he was able to get his farm going without any trouble because he was a white protestant. His family was anything but a target for prejudice. My grandmother was only allowed to attend nursing school due to the women’s rights movement in the 1800s. Because of the courage of those women, my grandmother became the first person in my family to graduate college. I have come to the conclusion that as of today, race is no longer the problem; the problems of society are caused by poverty. Many minorities live in low income and poverty stricken areas. I should know, as most of my friends are minorities. It was quite hard for many of them to pay attention in school with an empty stomach and possible untreated medical disorders such as ADHD. Survival always comes first, and education came second. The hundreds of years of oppression will likely take another century to fully dissipate. The wounds of racism in this country have clotted but by no means are healed. When the final true race riot occurred after Rodney King was beaten by the police in L.A. the wounds of racism clotted. They have slowly began to heal ever since.

As a white, Christian male I face very little prejudice. The only real prejudices I have experienced were comments about being Catholic, specifically me being called a “fish eater” and I recall age discrimination at a gas station. The station manager would only allow two students inside at a time. Naturally I was pissed, so I took the appropriate action and wrote to the customer service representatives of Speedway. I did not see the same employees working at that station after that so I can only assume the company took action. I cannot imagine dealing with that sort of crap on a daily basis as so many minorities did for so long. I can understand how minorities can make racist jokes about their own race so easily. It is actually quite fun to do so. I recall making jokes about white people while in High School and it caused many of my black friends to roar with laughter. Strangely, they eventually allowed me to use one of the N-words among them. [I say one of the words because nigga means brother while nigger is a word that will get you jumped.] I recall someone making a comment about priests after the molestation incidents in New England, so I retorted, “Shut up before I have you locked in a room with a bunch of nuns, and their rulers…” I ended up living in a world of racial indifference where no one cared about race including the minorities. I recall my physics teacher relating a concept to a children’s game called “crack the whip.” Naturally my friend Mark who is black had to make a comment. “Crack the whip? I don’t know if this is a game black people should play.” Racial tensions had become a laughing matter. However this was not the case up in Bowling Green, Ohio and it may have been part of the reason I did not fit in. The people were too different. I noticed that people were either super careful not to offend anyone racially or they were racist themselves. Granted, I had a limited stay up at the University but I believe I saw no middle ground like I did back in Columbus. It may just be that I only saw a small part of the town, but in my limited experience, it is what I saw.

I have come to the conclusion that the problem is no longer a racial problem but a monetary one. The problems in this world come from greed and the will to hold on to power by any means necessary. What’s the cost of a few lives if they get in the way of absolute power and wealth? In today’s world, the cost is pretty low. I believe the only way to get rid of the problem of poverty is to actually eliminate the monetary system much like they did on Star Trek. However, we are a few hundred years from that time. So it is doubtful that the problem will be solved anytime soon.

Post 4

Newton’s laws of motion are the following. A body at rest stays at rest, and a body in motion stays in motion, unless it is acted on by an external force. Force equals mass times acceleration and finally, to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The same principles apply in social situations. Violence usually ends up with a reaction of an equal amount of violence. However in reality, violence has a tendency to grow out of control.
When faced with a problem, one can either ignore it or face the situation. African Americans were forced to deal with the problems of discrimination and segregation for over a hundred years. The unparalleled violence against black people included beatings, rape, and even lynchings. Until the Civil Rights Movement, black people were still enslaved; enslaved by the fear of their oppressors.
Martin Luther King Jr. was the most famous non violent activist for change during the Civil Rights Movement. Non violent approaches worked because the media would catch images and video of peaceful protesters suffering from violence. The guilt of seeing peaceful protesters getting violently attacked provokes change in many cases. However, meeting violence with peace goes against the laws of physics. All actions are met with an equal and opposite reaction.
Other people felt the situation with the Civil Rights Movement should be handled differently. Malcolm X believed that if the government did not do its job to protect you then you retain the right to do so yourself. He stated that the second amendment applied to everyone and that all black people should own firearms for self defense. According to Malcolm X, racism was to be destroyed, by any means necessary. When the government fails to protect the people they have the right to take matters into their own hands. Jean Owens was raped by four men and the men were never charged for their heinous crime. White people were never charged for crimes committed against blacks. Physical, mental, and emotional abuse was a part of daily life for black people.

Post 3

“We are the Borg. Your technological and biological distinctiveness will be used to service us. Your life as you know it is over. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” For those who have ever watched Star Trek, those words are familiar ones. However, to the many immigrants who came to the Americas, they might as well have heard them as well. Not unlike those assimilated by the Borg collective, the Mexicans and Irish were forced to assimilate into American culture under threats of violence.

Mexican immigrants were discriminated against in their own homeland. Travel into the United States was a short and easy trip. Many immigrants chose to walk across the Rio Grande River. War was ravaging the country of Mexico and many were forced to flee the violence. Many of them had only expected the move to be temporary but as in many wars expected only to last “till Christmas,” the war lasted far longer. Many refugees ended up staying inside the territory of the United States.

The Irish were also running from something as well. They were running from British oppression and the great potato famine. Many people died when a fungus spread rampantly on the potato crops throughout Ireland. Potatoes were the sole food source for many of the Irish. The only solution was to leave Ireland and head to United States. The streets were paved with gold and the people’s bellies were full.

The two different groups of people faced the same form of oppression. Most of them were forced into agricultural labor. White people avoided these two groups. They were beaten down physically and mentally. They were forced to work long hours, in terrible conditions for meager wages.

The conditions of the United States were overblown for immigrants. All of the wonderful things about the United States were only true if you were a wealthy white man. The immigrants were not welcomed with open arms by the so called natives of the United States. The many racial and ethnic minorities often fought with one another when they were all in similar circumstances. The harsh reality of it was that the land they had heard about did not exist. The United States was much different than the stories they had heard in their home countries. Strangely enough, many people chose to stay in the United States and be assimilated by American society.

Post 2

Slavery was woven into the very fabric of American society until the end of the Civil War. The stereotypical black man was known as “Sambo” and the female version, the black maid. Sambo was typically thought of as a lazy black man who spent his time singing instead of working. The stereotypical black maid was a fat black lady who was always happy to cook or clean when asked. Of course, actual black people were nothing like Sambo. Most black people were hard workers and the black maids were far from fat most of the time. Most of the black maids were skinny and ended up becoming rape victims to their masters. The stereotypes were used to cover up the evils of slavery in the eyes of the American people.

Slavery was an enormously profitable system for slave owners. Unpaid forced labor allowed slave owners to reap the rewards from the labor of their slaves. Farm work was hard and time consuming. They would have lost untold amounts of money from using paid workers. There is some irony in that Southerners believed so strongly in slavery when so few of the citizens actually owned slaves. Also there were laws being in place to allow the south to keep their slaves and make it harder for other people to take away that privilege. If slaves would run away they were according to law to be brought back to their owners. Everyone was implicated in the slavery problem. No white Southerner wanted the slaves to get any ideas about revolting. Laws were created to deny access to knowledge for blacks. Slaves who ran away were returned to their owners under federal law. Slave catchers would even roam the northern states. War was necessary for slavery to end. And slavery only ended as a means to destroy the Southern economy during the war. Once the Civil War began, slave owners were scared to go to sleep at night for fear of being murdered by one of their slaves.

The rich control everything in this country. Not just the rich, I’m referring to the absolute filthiest rich people in the country. For instance where my mom works at Minster Machine there is a rich man behind the company. The rich do not care about the poor as long as it does not affect them. CEOs are known to cut pay to their workers while lounging in their expensive cars, homes, or even airplanes. Perhaps the way to go is to get rid of the monetary system all together as well as material needs. The challenge instead of accumulating wealth should be to improve ourselves and those around us.

Post 1

When the British arrived in North America, they were met by the Native Americans, specifically the Powhatan. They were immediately found to be savage by the English. Their cultural differences gave the English an excuse to label the natives as inferior. The Irish were also subject to degradation at the hands of the English. The fact that the British viewed the Native Americans as savage justified any and all degrading statements and beliefs about them. They were labeled as monsters for merely being different.

Their skin color and lack of English language also allowed the English to label the natives as inferior. The Powhatan were the victims of the hypocritical English. The English accused the Powhatans of being savage cannibals when the English themselves were guilty of the practice. The English were forced to eat their own in addition to their pets. They stole food from their Powhatan neighbors and killed them as well. They turned the natives into slaves through forcing them to work and forcing them to pay tribute. The natives were labeled as savages whenever they attempted to defend themselves. Resistance was futile as it was labeled a massacre every time.

Racial profiling has not disappeared. The recent downturn of the economy is fueling new racial tensions among people in the United States, especially in the cities. Some people are beginning to blame minorities for their lack of jobs. They fail to see the banks as the real enemy.