Jannatul Barsha
Professor Wu
English 1101
April 15, 2020
Hannah Jones Reflection
As an optimistic individual, I have always believed and felt that slavery is an African American success story because they found pathways to not escape it but fight it. They were dehumanized in every possible way by the Whites. It definitely was an extremely challenging time for the Blacks as they were deprived of natural human rights and prejudiced because of their ethnicity, color etc. Though it took many years of blood, sweat, and tears, they survived it. As they were determined, defiant, and supportive of each other, they directed themselves to the route of having a better respected life where they would be allocated with equal rights. As the phrase goes “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, every human being has the natural rights of living their life without the intervention of others, including the government.
In the article “the 1619 project”, Hannah Jones shares her utmost personal experience and talks about unjust slavery that limited Black’s human rights. She truly believed that her father should not be working in the military as she knew he would not be treated the same like other Whites even if he joins the military. Even after joining the military, he was not much appreciated and was demoralized by the extremists that there was no point of him being in the military. Hannah Jones points out that the flag is nothing but a shame to the land of America where justice is being denied over and over for many years. In addition, she also questioned her dad’s preferences in the article as her dad assumed that America might hold uprightness and treat him as an American.
However, expectations did not turn into reality. Therefore, Hannah-Jones contributes to authenticity and brings up the bitter-sweet truth of America about how African-Americans were enslaved and were forced to cultivate their country to prosperity and profitability as they produced food, cooked, cleaned, served and did all the hardships without being provided quality life choices. According to Hannah-Jones beliefs, America never would have been the same if it was not for African-Americans. Moreover, she also mentions how the amendments made fake promises of protecting every individual’s natural rights and did wrong the Blacks. In the article, it states, “ Through centuries of black resistance and protest, we have helped the country live up to its founding ideals”. This piece of quotes demonstrates Hannah-Jones’s idea of how America would not have been able to establish its foundation of egalitarian society. A society where everyone is treated fairly and equallymore or less ; men and women, young and old, tall and short, black and brown, Christian and Muslim, gay and straight etc. Back in the days, women did not have any sanctuary or any surety that they would be abducted, tortured or even raped. They did not have the authority over their kids either. Additionally, they were nagated of the right to vote so that their voices and choices can be oppressed from time to time. Education for Blacks was kept prohibited so that they remain untaught and ignorant of their rights. America owes a big one to the community of African-Americans.
I was never aware of racism and slavery until I moved to the United States. It taught me a vast quantity of terms, words, and ideas. In my judgement, I think African-americans did not inherit inequality but they were wronged by the Whites. They were being used and maneuvered by the unjustifiable White people for their own selfish motives and interests while the Blacks suffered in the dark. It is crazy to acknowledge all the history that America holds and often times it surprises to even believe that there have had been a time when slavery existed. As I live upto my choices, I do not anticipate that I would have been able to survive a timeline like this. In my opinion every individual deserves to have basic rights of freedom of choice, religion and speech. They also should have the right to practice their preferred religion and beliefs and no one should be forbidden to speak their mind and express their ideas and thoughts.
Wilentz Reflection
Compared to Hannah-Jones, Wilentz have a completely different overview on slavery. In the article, “American slavery and the Relentless Unforseen”, Wilentz shares his point of view and explains that slavery was obligatory and slavery should not have ended. Throughout, he discusses how and in what ways the enslaving of African-Americans was a huge need for America itself to be established both socially and economically. If you put yourself in his place and think logically, I think you too are going to be able to see that he is right in a sense because slavery was bound to take place later or sooner as the Whites found the Black’s with lack of education, absence of asic knowledge of how the world works and endless poverty.
In my opinion, nothing is meant forever. If slavery started with a notion, it also had a motive to dessicate. I believe that Wilentz stays unbiased and dispassionate while pointing out his thoughts on the table whereas Hanna-Jones gets up close and personal throughout her write-up since she confronted the circumstances and watched her dad suffer racism.
Before reading those articles, I used to assume that Abraham Lincoln was a god in disguise. I get amazed how the history books are written in favor of the oppressionist and people who are in power. It is almost like we and our future generations are being blind-folded from the truth so that we remain ignorant and dead from the neck up.
