Reflection 3

In the article entitled “The 1619 Project”, by Nikole Hannah Jones, the ideas of freedom and equality were chopped into it’s roughest and tiniest pieces. One hundred plus years ago there was a time where people were being mistreated simply because they weren’t white. Similarly today, people are still being mistreated but somehow today’s version of slavery is much more accepted by everyone of every race. Nikole, having heard and lived through the stories of her families, explains the unjust treatment that African-Americans had to face even though “our people’s contributions to building the richest and most powerful nation in the world were indelible, that the United States simply would not exist without us.” In her eyes, African-Americans paved the way for America or rather they created a sense of equality and freedom during the times of slavery. However, fast forward to 202o and no one seems to care about the homeless man in the subways or laying in the corner. It almost seems like slavery never ended but how can a homeless man relate to those who were lynched and over worked because they were African-American? After reading Nikoles’ words, I came to the conclusion that there can never be 100% equality or freedom because other things exist such as greed, corruption and racism. Back then, there was always protests and arguments relating to slavery. Today, you will see that there is a bit of a unified force against homeless people regardless of race and with no knowledge of their situation. Somehow we make it seem just or okay to just walk by and not help these people almost how white-Americans felt that it was okay to make slaves out of African-Americans. Of course, later on that caused a problem in itself in that now every race thinks they are superior than everyone else making racism a natural thing in America. After-all, America started out with slavery and it continues throughout the years under a different title. Another thing noticed in Hannah-Jones writing is the switch from they to we and us. This brings up the question of who the we or us is and who does it include? Only African-Americans? If so, that isn’t equal. In a sense, America can never really be equal because even that isn’t fair. For example, there are 3 people receiving money. One has 1 million dollars, the other has $20 and the last one has $1. They all receive $1 dollar or equal amounts however is that fair? Racism, attitudes, ignorance, lack of knowledge, slavery, its all related.