11/30/2018 0 Comments Native American StrugglesDoes Native American history and culture teach us lessons that can help reduce the enormous potential for ethnic and religious conflict in today’s world?
Native Americans have a massive history and culture, but for a long time it has been overlooked or erased by western colonialism. Today, Native Americans live in poverty on reservations in remote parts of the country. Native American history is rarely taught in schools, and their languages are almost lost. Most Native Americans suffer from alcoholism and are unemployed. The oppression of Native Americans was perpetuated by President Andrew Jackson, with his Indian Removal Act which would lead to the death of over 4,000 natives. Native Americans would not gain their citizenship until 1924, and would still be forced to live on indian reservations. This type of consistent repression of human rights is a play right out of the imperialist's handbook: invade, oppress, and forget. But this type of conflict is different from the more direct examples. There was never a massacre or a genocide, but rather a denial of rights over hundreds of years. This teaches us that sometimes the worst outcome of colonialism isn't always death, but rather the destruction of a culture and people with a millennium of history.
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How have major wars throughout United States history affected women voices in writing?
In Many Sisters To Many Brothers, Mary Macaulay outlines her experience as a woman during WWI. While many incapable men were allowed to fight on the front lines, women were reduced to staying at home and taking care of children. Kind of like how instead of studying something interesting, we’re reduced to writing blog posts about short stories and poems. Mary describes a desire to fight, but isn’t permitted to because of her gender. The following lines illustrate this: “Was there a scrap or ploy in which you, the boy, Could better me? You could not climb higher, Ride straighter, run as quick (and to smoke made you sick) . . . But I sit here, and you're under fire.” It is almost as if she is writing to a young man who she knows well. She knows she is very proficient (in contrast to him), but he is allowed to fight and she is not. This is an injustice that influences her tone, which is almost condescending. She is acknowledging her position in relation to men, and is frustrated by the fact that she isn’t perceived as equal. |
AuthorI'm Sabrina, a student at New Tech High. Archives
April 2019
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