We have come so far…but not far Enough

While reading an article straight out of South Carolina news I was immensely disturbed. How can we have grown so much as a nation and keep repeating negative history? How can we continue the barbaric treatment of human life?

The story read of a 30 year old black man that was shot in the head and tied to a truck and dragged for miles before the rope snapped. A couple things are really maddening about this. First, the person that did this to him was no stranger to him, he and the person that has been charged with doing this had actually been spending the evening together in the home, these people actually worked together. Secondly, what type of human being can shoot someone in the head, kill them and then drag their body behind a truck for miles?

The United States of America is supposed to be a just place. I beg to differ. Daily we read of malicious acts of crime on one another, but this is beyond words. This 19 year old young white man obviously didn’t even respect this man as a human being let alone a friend. Why are we in 2010 still dealing with vicious acts of violence like this?

How much racial hatred do you think people face on a given day? As stories like this come up, I believe that it I more frequent then not. I reflect on my day to day interaction and too feel that I encounter some “hidden racism”. The difference with me is that it comes in forms of sarcasm and behind the back banter.

I read an article on Yahoo that compounded this same thought. It was about a Civil War photo that had been found in someone’s home of two little boys looking pretty sad. The man that bought the pictures thought this was a huge find because there aren’t many pictures of slave children from back in those days. The part that made me a bit angry was the comments on the article. People were saying that black people should get over it because slaves don’t exist anymore; no one felt sorrow about what they viewed. The reason I got a bit upset was because no one tells Jewish people to forget about the Holocaust or any other nationality for that matter. Why should black people be the ones to always forgive and forget? We have to co exist in this society but why does society make us feel that we shouldn’t exist even in this day and age.

We have to be mindful to all things that go on in today's society that can perceived as racism because we must teach our children to stay focus and be aware of where they comes from. Not to forget the things that others have endured for us today.


Much Love

Chanel

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