Reflection 1:
I have many feelings about the videos in this module so far, but the two most important are furious and thankful. Thankful that these videos are available to educate people on these events (as the education system has been crafted to uphold white supremacy so rarely these stories are told), but I am furious that they happened.
I keep thinking about how people of privileged identities often will say after learning about events such as the ones in the videos that they would never let something similar happen nowadays. And then I look at the news... For example, the stereotyping of Mexican immigrants by El Paso Mayor Tom Lea started the movement to strengthen border patrolling and policing who gets to enter the border, and we still see the same sentiment today with the current President spewing racist and xenophobic statements and using his power to create and maintain detainment camps at the border. These camps continue to cause harm and kill immigrants each month and many of the same folx who said they would not let this happen again stay quiet - which infuriates me even more.
Reflection 2:
I am most definitely able to see these connections. I grew up in Brazil, where systemic racism is highly ingrained in society and it is explicitly visible how they affect black and darker-skinned brown folx in their neighborhoods. The segregation, high policing, and lack of funding for schools and infrastructure keeps those communities (which many folx know as favelas) where they are and unable to get out of poverty for generations. When I moved back to the US, at first I was pleasantly surprised at how different that felt here, but as I moved out of a small town in OH to larger cities, I clearly noticed the same patterns in infrastructure that were so obvious in Brazil - particularly how much more policing happens in neighborhoods that are mostly occupied by BIPOC families as well as educational gaps between districts.
Reflection 3:
I 100% believe that history shapes our beliefs, attitudes, and behavior today. The Jim Crow museum video really stuck with me as the founder and curator, Dr. David Pilgrim, made some important connections for the audience about how the system of oppression regarding race doesn't function in a vacuum - the portrayal of black peoples in the media, coupled with violence and legislation kept black people from achieving the freedom they supposedly were given when slavery was abolished. Characters like Jim Crow and Mammy created and solidified stereotypes of what black men and women are and do in order to embed white supremacy into our country's culture.
