Appalled

I wish I could say I'm surprised at what I'm learning but I've sadly realized the depth of the US's systemic racism goes infinitely deeper than I'll ever fully understand. I'm ashamed at not only what individual human beings are capable of doing to one another, but also what a collection of people, who were (and still are) elected into positions of power, are capable of doing so openly as a government. In regard to the prompt, yes, I think it's evident all of those historic events clearly still impact our country today. Many of the events did not take place long ago, and regardless of how long ago they took place, our entire foundation and it's systems have been created by the hands of so many racist oppressors and murderers. Sadly, there isn't a single person or area within the US that hasn't been affected by racism- whether that's resulted in one's privilege or one's oppression. I believe we've all been affected by it on a much greater scale than what most of our country is willing to admit or see. THIS is what needs to be taught in schools (paired with trauma-informed support for those who belong in the many people groups who've been/ are oppressed). As long as kids are being filled with our current white-washed version of history, we're going to continue to do harm by feeding into white-ignorance and not equipping kids of color with knowledge about WHY the system is failing them (versus continuing to shame them for not having access to what others do and essentially calling it survival of the fittest).