Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Diversity Question
The question I really liked seeing everyone's opinion on was the one where they asked if it was okay that African Americans take out their anger from being slaves so many years ago. I'm a big history buff, so I've learned a lot about slavery and what happened. But slavery is over. In 1863, the emancipation proclamation freed all the slaves from states still in the Union. And a few years later when the South reentered the Union, all those slaves were free. So slavery is done. Blacks have been assimilated into American culture. They are equal to whites in America. So they shouldn't still be like "we were slaves, we were treated differently, so now we should get special treatment." That was over 100 years ago. Move on. Women didn't get the right to vote until after African Americans and we don't complain about it. I heard once that most African Americans in the USA right now, aren't even directly related to an ex-slave. So I think it was an appropriate question, a question to make people realize there aren't divides along class lines unless you put them there.
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I'd have to agree that this is indeed something that has to be moved past. So many things have happened in history that cause certain races or groups to be hostile toward others and it's a separation that we have created. People could easily all get along if everyone didn't hold such a high level of judgment. Especially considering that most African Americans have no relation to slaves and it was so long ago and has been dealt with accordingly, it's simply unnecessary to remain resentful.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that there is no reason that blacks should be angry over slavery, I disagree with the equal standing that we “see." I’m a strong Republican and I feel very uncomfortable at events when I see blatant racism against Obama. Also, a recent study in Chicago had individuals with almost identical qualifications (with black/white sounding names) fill out job applications in thousands of different businesses- whites were called back by almost a 2-1 margin. I don’t believe at all that there is an equal standing yet, though it’s headed in that direction.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people shouldn’t hold grudges for slavery. Slavery has not happened to anyone alive right now so I don’t think that gives a black person whose ancestors were slaves the right to get angry at a white person whose ancestors were slave owners. The Civil War got rid of slavery, and America acknowledged that slavery was wrong. However, racism’s still happening, so I believe people do have a right to get upset over that. But it seems immature to get angry at someone due to something that happened in the past and that they had no control over.
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