Personally, this article truly spoke to me. At the beginning of President Obama's campaigning, I was skeptical; however, although I did clearly know he was an African American, that is not what made me a skeptic or would have dissuaded me from voting for him or not. Although, throughout his campaigning, I began to see a side of him that you can really only see in someone running for president when their real human side begins to come out as they get even more passionate about their policies and the issues they speak so vigorously about. From his election and the positive and negative things I heard about this man, I began to see the significant differences between my parents, grandparents and I. Sure I could see the physical differences between President Obama and I, but I have never been one to look down upon anyone, not even the little pre-schoolers I teach. You would be surprised to see how uncorrupted and unbiased those young children are, as well as how much an adult could learn from a child's innocence.
In the article I read, "Obama Urges Americans To Reject 'Politics of Division' Based on Race," I was was absolutely taken aback by the words he spoke because, to me, it seems he summed up his entire campaign's aims all in one speech. Although President looked up to Reverend Wright as a spiritual advisor and friend, he should not have been held accountable for his words. From the get-go of his campaign, President Obama was up-front when he said, "My father was a black man, and I consider myself a black man;" however, his ultimate goal as a president of this country was not to be bitter and strike back at the white generations before us, but to unite this entire country as a whole, no matter your race or ethnicity. I respect that wholeheartedly because this country does need that right now. Everyone needs to get past the racism of the past, blacks and whites alike, because until we can act as one, we are never going to be one. Just as President Obama said in this article, if we focus on one distraction, there are only going to be more that will take us further and further from our ultimate goal of unity.
Each one must teach one. I love watching the simplicity and the honest of our children. If we can teach our children not to begin "looking down" but to find the similarities in the people they meet, we are on our way.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your post and found the article you posted very interesting. The thought that we have to act as one before we will ever be considered one is very interesting. Through the years society has gotten better as acting as one complete society but we are far from ever being considered One. Maybe it’s the pessimist side of me, but I question if this is even possible. Will we as a society ever see beyond the color? Will we ever be blind to ones race and truly act as one race? I hope that one day this is possible, but dramatic changes will have to be made to social and cultural norms.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashley in that we are far from ever finding a harmonious side among people who are different from each other. Reading your post and the comments listed below made me start to wonder about the differences between prejudices of today and 50 years ago. 50 years ago, people would look at skin color alone and not even speak to that person. But how often today do we do that. I personally can’t think of very many people who wouldn’t interact with someone of a different skin color than himself or herself. I think today prejudices are based now more on the perception of the individual and on physical attributes. less on I’m not saying this is right and there are not still problems, I am just stating that look how far we HAVE come. I know things still need to change, but we ARE making progress. I just feel some people completely forget the good sometimes.
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