1) I do feel these incidents in our past influence and impact us today. The lack of complete education around our history leads to a populace that's ignorant. Although I have been exposed to most of the content in this module, the "adoption" of Native American children, the gynecological experiments done on young enslaved women, the part about redlining (which leads me to a questions about gentrification and how that happens), and the decontamination camps in El Paso were all new pieces of the puzzle for me. When we can't openly look at the atrocities we've committed as a country and how these all work within a capitalist system to benefit the wealthiest among us, then we can't begin the work of dismantling these systems.
2) It's hard not to see the connections, honestly. But there is a ton of anger in white people around the feeling that their way of life will have to change in order for injustices to be righted. We apparently don't want to give up a piece of our pie. But it was never our pie alone. We needed people of color (aka cheap labor) to do our dirty work so that we could live our lives in peace and relative comfort. Accepting out part in this is the work we must do as white people to create a better society for everyone. Defunding the police is something that I never thought I would get behind, but the more I learn, the more it makes so much sense. Just because things have historically been done one way doesn't mean we can't make another choice moving forward.
3) The Jim Crow video made the deepest impact, in particular, the part about President Obama. As someone that lives in California, I didn't see the kinds of vile, racist propaganda that was sold during the election. It's disturbing to know that there's a market for these kinds of projects, even as jokes. My own privilege makes easy to turn away from these types of things that horrify me and make me so angry. I can pull the self-care card and take a break, carry on with my day to day existence. I think what I've realized throughout this module (and for the last couple of weeks) that this is something I'm no longer willing to justify to myself.
Colleen, I too question the idea behind gentrification as it is currently taking place in my current neighborhood. These companies come in and get the land for a cheap price and then push out the low-class or middle-class individuals.
Which to me just illustrates that the redlining rules are still firmly entrenched. I'm wondering how gentrification works. From what you've stated, companies come in and buy land for cheap. Do they then only sell/rent to certain communities? Or is it more pricing people out? I realize all of these issues are so enmeshed that it feels impossible to untangle. Thanks for engaging with me, Brooke.
I did not know about native American children being adopted by white families. I did not know about Dr. Sims and his surgical experiments on a slave woman. I was ignorant of the treatment of Latinos at the southern border. The history taught in our schools omits so much. What I have learnef has taken a lifetime of intensive reading about racism.