By S.L.
Today we learned about where we came from. We learned that we actually came from Africa and as we spread around the world we started to change. In some places we started to become darker to protect ourselves against the harsh sun. While as some people moved north they started to become whiter. Now while this a amazing story about how all of the humans spread around to world to differ from the original proto-men of the distant past. However while we do all come from the same people some people think they are better just because of their skin color or to put it in another name, racism.
Racism is not something that has existed in dark and scary places like backwoods towns in the 1950s deep south where African Americans could be lynched for anything. Racism is something that people think is a part of their heritage. Like the Arkansas governor in the 1950s who defended the racist acts as part of the proud tradition of his state. We are a strange people us homo sapiens.
We lie, cheat, beg, ignore and steal to deal an upper hand. But then there are the moments, however small and few they may be where we help each other; and lets be honest we usually feel better when we give a fiver to a homeless man then making fun of the African American kid who just got a bad grade or the kid who has his dad help him get ahead in his life because he is unlucky enough not to have the ability to help himself out.
Racism does have a funny thing about it though. Take for example the Koch brothers; they a plenty of nice company that can give a very hefty retirement. They are also one of the most right wing corporate leaders up there with hobby lobby and the like. One thing, like many other big business owners, they are against illegal immigration. it is kind of funny that leaders are against people trying to make a life that's worth living by moving to the U.S. are the same guys who put jobs overseas. In effect facing some poor 8-year-old boy in some Chinese, Indonesian or Haitian sweatshop who has his life torn away from him to make t-shirts and iPhone cases that you can buy real cheap at a Walmart.
So that's what we learned in school. Now long our short the message is not something that we take, all the knowledge that we learned and laugh at our silly biased forefathers. In anything we should use that knowledge to fix ourselves. Race is probably one of the most important issues of our time or at least this decade. Starting with the Trayvon Martin murder and right now with the events in Alabama with the hanging of a local teen, in Ferguson Missouri where Michael Brown was murdered to the events in Mississippi. To sum up how I and probably many other people hear some lines from a Phil Ochs song:
''Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again"
We may as human lie cheat and steal, but before all that lets really make the effort to see that were really are all equal.
Today we learned about where we came from. We learned that we actually came from Africa and as we spread around the world we started to change. In some places we started to become darker to protect ourselves against the harsh sun. While as some people moved north they started to become whiter. Now while this a amazing story about how all of the humans spread around to world to differ from the original proto-men of the distant past. However while we do all come from the same people some people think they are better just because of their skin color or to put it in another name, racism.
Racism is not something that has existed in dark and scary places like backwoods towns in the 1950s deep south where African Americans could be lynched for anything. Racism is something that people think is a part of their heritage. Like the Arkansas governor in the 1950s who defended the racist acts as part of the proud tradition of his state. We are a strange people us homo sapiens.
We lie, cheat, beg, ignore and steal to deal an upper hand. But then there are the moments, however small and few they may be where we help each other; and lets be honest we usually feel better when we give a fiver to a homeless man then making fun of the African American kid who just got a bad grade or the kid who has his dad help him get ahead in his life because he is unlucky enough not to have the ability to help himself out.
Racism does have a funny thing about it though. Take for example the Koch brothers; they a plenty of nice company that can give a very hefty retirement. They are also one of the most right wing corporate leaders up there with hobby lobby and the like. One thing, like many other big business owners, they are against illegal immigration. it is kind of funny that leaders are against people trying to make a life that's worth living by moving to the U.S. are the same guys who put jobs overseas. In effect facing some poor 8-year-old boy in some Chinese, Indonesian or Haitian sweatshop who has his life torn away from him to make t-shirts and iPhone cases that you can buy real cheap at a Walmart.
So that's what we learned in school. Now long our short the message is not something that we take, all the knowledge that we learned and laugh at our silly biased forefathers. In anything we should use that knowledge to fix ourselves. Race is probably one of the most important issues of our time or at least this decade. Starting with the Trayvon Martin murder and right now with the events in Alabama with the hanging of a local teen, in Ferguson Missouri where Michael Brown was murdered to the events in Mississippi. To sum up how I and probably many other people hear some lines from a Phil Ochs song:
''Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again"
We may as human lie cheat and steal, but before all that lets really make the effort to see that were really are all equal.