To help understand race-relations in America today, it's important to
look back on our past/history. We've been doing that with our reading of
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's story of the South of the 30's,
along with our viewing the PBS documentary, Freedom Riders, that dealt
with the 60's. But this all took place decades ago. How would you sum up
race-relations in America today, and more specifically, what is your
own personal experience with it? What do you see are some of the more
important issues, ideas, controversies at the heart of race-relations in
America today?
Currently, at least in our area, I feel that race relations have come a long way. Legally speaking, at least, racism doesn't exist. That is to say, there are no laws that single out any particular minority. Now, in some areas of our country, of even our state, racism is still a large problem, but it is not the biggest issue of controversy in our nation. That would mostly likely be the gay rights movement. while there is no legal discrimination against say, blacks, or other races, that kind of legal discrimination against gays in America is very real. Gays in America do not have the right to marry their partners, and some of the head of the opposition to the gay rights movement's main arguments boil down to 'If gays could get married, animals would get married too'. this argument is exactly the kind of slur used by racists, comparing their targets to animals. I feel that if more people saw the similarities between the two cases of discrimination, then it would be much easier to procure equal rights for those people. It's my opinion that the movement for civil rights will not have changed anything until it has changed everything, and all groups, not just one or two, are treated equally and fairly.
No comments:
Post a Comment