A Nation Divided

So, before Christmas and our big school project, we finished a topic about the US – more specifically about the nation that is divided. The division is generally centered around race and immigration. I’ve always found segregation and the question of race rather interesting. It has always consisted of questions, which I have been unable to answer. Because why does segregation exist? Why are some people convinced that other people are not as worthy as them just because they have a different skin tone? Why do some people believe others to be dirty just because their skin is darker? What could possibly the answer to this? I think the answer must lie in the different types of people and their person within – yet I still find it difficult to justify segregation and the belief that some people are not as worthy as others.

Anyway, I got a bit off topic and then maybe not. But the course of the topic really centered quite a bit about the whole concept of slaveholding, which was a very common thing up until the 60’s – some may still have slaves, I am actually not certain. The thing, I found particularly interesting, is that the Founding Fathers were slaveholders themselves, yet they wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence marking all people with equal values. However, I think it is important to mention that I believe that even though they were slaveholders, they carved a path for future slaves. Martin Luther King Jr. used a passage from The Declaration of Independence in his speech “I Have a Dream” and his argument would not be valid had he not had the declaration.

During the course, we also saw the movie “The Butler”, which is centered around one man named Cecil Gaines. The movie is loosely based on the story of a butler named Eugene Allen. Cecil was a slave himself and grew up on a cotton plantation. His father is killed by the slaveholder after confronting him for raping Cecil’s mother. Cecil is later brought into the house and taught how to serve properly, bringing him to leave the plantation and from here he works his way up until he is offered a job as a butler at The White House. Here he serves under many different presidential periods and is content until he cannot help but notice the class divisions and unequal payment. He resigns after witnessing Reagan’s refusal to support economic sanctions against apartheid in South Africa. So, Cecil somehow changes his view of things during the movie.

I really liked this course and I would have loved to find out how race is looked upon in modern day America. I know some but not enough to keep me satisfied.