Some of the main topics we covered: reconstruction, black rights, Native American discrimination, women's suffrage- all seem unrelated, individually, but when looking at them together its very easy to see a common theme: force, not choice. All these topics represent people forcefully being put down or discriminated by others that believe it's right or beneficial. For the most part these judgmental decisions were not based on any meaningful reason or precedent- they just were.
In the case of the Native Americans, the U.S. forced them into Reservation schools and took the land they lived on so that they could be "productive people" (aka: American farmers). However, never was any such idea what the Natives wanted nor did they ask for it...or have a choice in it.
To the women who were constantly denied the right to vote, I don't think it was the physical act of voting that was so unsettling, but rather the fact that others had the choice to vote or not vote while women were simply told "no."
The same holds true today. Not everyone wants to go to the moon, or become a CEO, or a YouTube celebrity- but if one person is allowed to choose, how can another person be denied that right?
I make choices every day: do I sleep in or go to class? Spend money or save money? Captain crunch or Fruit Loops (which is always a hard one) At the time I didn't think these choices matter or were important, but I also was not told (or legally prohibited) from making a choice.
I can not imagine how these groups were constantly put down, discriminated against, and told they could not something. We all know what happened when mom told us to not go into the cookie jar...
No comments:
Post a Comment