Field Trip

So today my history class went to the Jewish Community Centre of the Wyoming Valley. We got there, looked at all the remember the holocaust posters, watched the remember the holocaust video, and listened to a survivor of the holocaust. We talked about the candles, the camps, and the killings, and over all I found it a profound experience.

Others didn't, but I'm not going to let that get to me.

But it did get me thinking about prejudice in the world today. Racial prejudice still influence the world. Jewish people have been persecuted for thousands of years, and have been through terrible ordeals such as the holocaust. Japanese Americans were put in internment camps. African Americans were denied basic civil liberties. Bosnia was raped and pillaged. Genocides in Darfur and Rwanda still live on.

But what makes one atrocity any more atrocious than another?

Why does the issue of slavery and civil rights so hot button today? America made reparations, instituted things such as Affirmative Action. The government has been giving handouts to the African American community for many years now.

But still, in my gym class, my black classmates try to pull that "listen-white-girl-my-family-was-enslaved-by-your-family-for-hundreds-of-years-you-better-be-scared-guilty-and-apolgetic" thing. Right. My family didn't come to America till the nineties. Well after slavery was abolished. We NEVER owned slaves. EVER.

Japanese Americans don't play the race card. How often do you hear someone say "OH, YOU JUST HATE ME CUZ I'M ASIAN." I have never heard a Jew talk about the Arians keeping them down. By moving on, and rebuilding thier lives, the Jews and Japanese were able to get past the prejudice. While there is definately still anti-Semitism, and Anti-Asian sentiment in the world todya, they don't let it affect them. They don't use it as an excuse.

Don't use race as an excuse