By
Naomi Ellisor
From an article written by Matt Blitz, it is explained how African American women working as "human computers" made their way to the top of NASA's programs. Katherine Johnson, Dorthy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson are just a few of the women that faced discrimination, prejudice, and racism in their efforts to help beat the Russians in the infamous space race. They helped launch the Friendship Seven, worked in the Apollo program, and later assisted in the calculations with the moon landing. Throughout the movie we see them brake through barriers and pave the way for many others.
In a song/spoken poetry written and preformed by Prince Ea, he goes in depth about how we as a society should take down labels appointed too, or received by us. In his song he writes, "Labels are not you and labels are not me Labels are just ...labels But who we truly are is not... skin... deep See, when I drive my car, no one would ever confuse the car for.... me Well, when I drive my ....body, why do you confuse me for my... body? It's.... my ....body....get it? Not me" In this passage he boils down the song to the main points. He has such passion and emotion that is conveyed well through the depth of his expression in this song.
Sonia K. is a holocaust survivor speaking out about oppression she has been through, and the same mistakes being repeated today. She talked about the incident in Charlottesville with the Nazi's and white supremacists, and the eerie resemblance it equates to the holocaust. Sonia also talked about not being silenced, and speaking out against the hate that surrounds us everyday.
In the poem Trail of Tears: Our removal by Linda Hogan, talks about how we need to take care of the land that we took from them. The Native American's believed they would start a new life, but justice never shone through corruption. We took over their lands, and we need to take care of what we have taken upon ourselves. This ties in with my racism theme because a whole race, a whole culture was taken and removed by people who would never understand the fullness of what they were doing.
This painting by Jose Domingo Ulloa Medieta done in 1957, is titled "Racism/Incident at Little rock". This painting is all about the the state of Arkansas and the people who tried to go against the "Brown vs Board of Education" decision. In the picture Ulloa depicts the people in the background as monsters, because in the way that they behaved they seamed to have truly become the monsters that they were.
The book The Help, was written by Kathryn Stockett depicts what it was like living in Jackson Mississippi in the 1960's. We see both rich white's, and poor black maids live their day to day life. It is so unfair how people were treated when the infamous Jim Crow laws were in effect, but even after they were resolved racism and discrimination still took place. It is pointed out in the book how racism is passed down from generation to generation. Racism is an inherited trait that is taught by mothers to their children. Aibileen (The main character of the book) raised seventeen white children in her time as a maid and she sees how every child learns through time how to hate and see color first.
