Blog Post #4

       

     This particular section of the text focused on racism in the mid 1900s. The motto that was promoted at this time was "Separate but Equal"; however, there was nothing "equal" about the segregated schools. The white schools received more funding and had better resources while the schools for minorities, specifically black Americans, lacked the tools to make its students successful. Unlike kids today, the children at the time wanted to learn and saw it as an opportunity to become better people and help their families out of poverty. They would protest for more homework in order to enforce the skills they had learned. They truly wanted to learn for the sake of learning and did not take their education for granted as we many times do. When it came time for schools to desegregate, the black children went to their new schools knowing that they would be threatened, harassed, and possibly physically harmed. However, they decided to go in order to enact change and receive the high quality education they were entitled to as American citizens. They believed it was their right to have a proper education and fought for that right. 

         As a group, a specific point of interest was the reason behind school districts accepting reform laws. During the mid 1900s, there were many education reform laws passed by the United States government to protect the rights of minorities. However, individual counties or school districts refused to accept these laws as they did want white students to mingle with minority children. It was only when the government threatened to cut their funding that they began to enact change and implemented the laws. This proved that the racist viewpoints they held were deeply rooted in their mind and would not easily be changed. 

Although racism is not at its peak as it used to be, traces of the harsh behavior

still linger within the education system today. 

           Sometimes I wonder what would happen if more Pakistan immigrants had immigrated to the United States and how they would be treated. Northern Europeans, who shared the same white skin with Eastern Europeans, were discriminated against them. One can only imagine how brown colored people (aside from Hispanics) would be treated. Another reflection I had while reading was how long will it take for racism and its harmful effects to leave the minds of the American people. We have seen the horrific aftermath of slavery yet in some cases non-whites are still not seen as equals to whites. They are treated as second class citizens who are not capable of achieving great things. 

         As a group, we decided to create a visual that consisted of images. These images would altogether encompass our feelings to the text, the TED talk, and the documentary. Our visual was created electronically. This assignment was interesting as we had free reign to create anything we wanted. With the other modules, we simply had to list our words, phrases, or ideas based on importance but with this assignment, we got to use our artistic abilities to express our thoughts and reflections on the texts and media instead of writing about them.