Throughout
the semester we have been talking about the importance and relevance of history
in shaping our nation’s views. Given that yesterday was Columbus Day, the
controversy that surrounds the legacy of Christopher Columbus serves as a
reminder of the importance of talking about and remembering both the good and
the bad of history. While many people glorify Columbus for discovering and
shaping the future of the United States, he also exploited, colonized, and
killed many Native Americans. The way in which we remember and honor Columbus correlates
with many other debated figures and events throughout history. Specifically, it
has me thinking about how we remember slavery. The way in which history is remembered
constructs the social, political, and cultural aspects of our society and plays
a vital role in grappling with race issues today.
As the longstanding fight for racial
equality and justice continues today, understanding the roots of such racial
tension is essential to honoring the injustices that took place and engaging in
open discussion about race in order to foster a just society. Dealing with
racial tension today, whether it’s through kneeling during the National Anthem
or the protests of national monuments, stems from the beginning of the enslavement
of black folks. Understanding the institution of slavery is vital to acknowledging
the confines of African American life today. Ever since we began to navigate
racial differences, slavery became a way to explain and justify the differences
and oppression of black people. Since then, an epistemology of ignorance has
been formed in attempt to distance ourselves from our negative history, which
has consequently left race thinking and racial issues unresolved.
Failure to fully understand and
grapple with our racist history leads to misunderstanding and misconstrued
views of what is just and what is unjust. Attempting to disconnect racial
tension and protests from history is an attempt to undermine the discrimination
and oppression black people are faced with. Our nation’s desire to show that
the United States is built on success and opportunity has far too long overshadowed
the suffrage of black people. What we choose to remember and what we choose to
forget has created gaps in our knowledge of social, political, and cultural
structures. These very gaps of knowledge have prevented our country from
contending with race and its implications, ultimately allowing for racial
injustices to continue. Understanding historical events in their entirety is
essential to understanding and confronting the turmoil in American society today.
WC: 407
Pledged: Olivia
Holmes
I agree with everything you said. I am, though, curious as to how people who commonly espouse the views of enslavement having a dominant hand in society today would address righting the wrongs of history - particularly, when faced with the majority of Americans who are against race-conscious policies and programs being designed and created to intentionally equate the playing for blacks. That idea has already been tried, attempted, and unquestionably failed with the slow, near death of affirmative action.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there needs to be more conversations about the entire history and not just the parts of it that we want to hear. We have all heard the phrase of how history repeats itself, and this is evident in many ways today. In order to fully understand why certain things go on today, we must look back and fully understand what happened in the past.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with the point that you are making. If people continuously allow for history to be forgotten, people begin to become complacent with their efforts to make the things that were done wrong in history right. If people continue to forget about slavery, then there will be no end to the discrimination shown towards blacks in todays society. If someone as powerful as Martin Luther King Jr. could not fully put an end to racism or discrimination shown towards blacks, there is no way possible that it will end on its own. This is why we can not leave behind history, and continue to push until we get to a place to where there is no racism or discrimination.
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