Gosh Module One gave me some feelings, especially around racist policies that involved (and hurt) youth. Before I had kids I disliked how the focus always seemed to be on "children are innocent" as if adults weren't. Now as a parent, I get it, while also still firmly believing that adults should be given the same level of empathy and advocacy to correct past wrongs. I am horrified at topics like environmental racism and racism in housing, but the video on boarding schools and forced adoption of Native American children made me cry, especially to see pictures of some of their families living outside the boarding schools. I have a four-year-old and we read a book called "When We Were Young" which tries to help small children begin to learn and understand about some of these policies. I cry every time I read it to her and she always asks me why they did it and of course I don't have good answers for her. Before buying this book I knew these boarding schools existed in the US, but didn't know much about them. When I googled it, most of the results I found were information out of Canada and it pains and angers me to feel like my government and country do not seem to have done much work to address what was done to these children (apparently a large number of them died and of course the psychological impact on the ones who lived cannot be quantified.
And I was proud of Carmelita Torres for standing up to injustices done to her at such a young age, but also saddened because she was all but forgotten after her brave actions and I can't help but wonder what became of her...
