U.S. and the World - F Block
About this class
This is a survey class in U.S. History, which is organized thematically.
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Vermont Commons School
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Modern US History in a Global Context
This class will explore history and global issues since 1945, with a goal of seeing every issue from multiple perspectives. Students will write frequent, short opinion pieces that I would love to have them share with students around the world.
SlowSlothIsSlow
Hi Spiderman,
Thank you so much for your comment. I completely agree with your thoughts on intersectionality and how that adds to the complexity and intensity of the issue. I think that while difficult, the best possible solution to this is equality on all fronts. You mention gender, and gender is obviously a huge contributor. I thought that the article you sent me was very interesting; I was definitely previously aware of the way that gender and race combine to make discrimination far more common for people that fit into certain category combinations, but I didn't know much about the specifics that the article offered. I would be interested to see how people also identifying as LGBTQ might feature into similar statistics. I don't personally know any numbers, or much about how that adds to a combination, but I would guess that it would similarly intensify already present issues.
Amira
mpoblete
I see where you're coming from, but does there have to be a single leader for the movement to make an impact? There are many different voices speaking out from across all backgrounds, and the role that social media has played in raising awareness and rallying people has been monumental. This page of the Black Lives Matter website talks about misconceptions about the movement, and number 2 discusses the idea that the Black Lives Matter movement is leaderless:
http://blacklivesmatter.com/11-major-misconceptions-about-the-black-live...
A point they raise that really stuck with me is that when we look for "leaders" we often look for old, wise, heterosexual, cisgendered men. But a strength of the Black Lives Matter movement is that they have so many strong leaders. Is it really necessary to pin a face to the movement? That seems to me as though it would narrow the movement far too much--without a specific face, whenever I hear about the movement, the first things that come to mind are the injustices surrounding black lives in America (specifically I associate it with Freddie Gray).
That being said, I see some middle ground between our two views--more publicity for the leaders that are in place would show outsiders the varieties of leaders that exist, and perhaps more collaboration could be reached. I see what you mean about wanting another MLK for Black Lives Matter, but I would say there are many MLKs for the Black Lives Matter Movement. What do you think?
SlowSlothIsSlow
Thank your for your comment. I liked your description of the color blind argument being passive, and I completely agree with that. I'm interested to hear what you, as a resident of a big city like Baltimore, think are the main issues that can be seen every day. I think it would be interesting to compare our experiences living in Vermont and Baltimore.
Storm
Hey thanks for the questions. It's obviously a very complex solution and many places will require many different approaches. However, the war on drugs seems to be putting many addicts in prison on first or second offenses. A strong argument could be made to send these addicts to rehab instead of prison, because in many cases it is vastly cheaper and will rehabilitate them back into a productive member of society. In terms of prevention, education creates a natural deterrent, but there should be more debate whether recreational drugs should be legal or not. Thanks again.
EhindsVCS
I think today much of the movements we see that influence our steps forward are not in fact movements so much as they are legislative actions pushed by a group of politically active citizens and the politicians they collaborate with. Movements like black lives matter and other protesting groups are what we tend to notice because that is what the media tends to cover and distribute to us, however I think that most of the changes we see today come from within education systems, and the changing culture towards race is more a result of individualized changes and activism rather than a movements push for change. Riots, like the ones that happened in Baltimore, tend to stem out of police killings because of race, and also out of unfair judicial system decisions, such as the Trayvon Martin case. The riots are a manifestation of the anger and frustration that blacks and whites across the country feel.
Lasker
I think that the Civil Rights Movement never ended, however it has changed and it became the Black Lives Matter Movement. Even after the Civil Rights Movement ended, people of color were still at a disadvantage, and this makes the movement unable to end since their is still racism present, we can see this in many statistics, and personally I believe that we most likely will never achieve equality, since we refuse to give up some power.
jakeweissgold
Your idea that racial inequality is brought about today by people refusing to talk about race. People need to talk about this and i do believe that people in the black lives matter movement and Ferguson racial inequality bring this issue more to the front of peoples attention. A lot of the time people are scared of these movements and therefore they do not know exactly what to expect from angry black people. this is called internalized racism and it is the biggest issue, IMO.
jakeweissgold
Your idea that racial inequality is brought about today by people refusing to talk about race. People need to talk about this and i do believe that people in the black lives matter movement and Ferguson racial inequality bring this issue more to the front of peoples attention. A lot of the time people are scared of these movements and therefore they do not know exactly what to expect from angry black people. this is called internalized racism and it is the biggest issue, IMO.
Camel
I really like your point of view, you pose a great counterpoint. I would go further to state that because there is no centralized leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, there is no focus for outsiders to see. I wonder if there was a "Martin Luther King" of the Black Lives Matter movement, if there would be more unification and strength for effective change. Thoughts?
mrollfinke
I completely agree that shutting down the border and denying all refugees acceptance to the country would not solve the issues of terrorism at all. You also make very good points about how the objective of terrorism is to cause fear. What I don't understand about America today is that we are so scared of foreign terrorists yet not at all afraid of the dozens of mass shootings each year caused by American citizens. We need to reform our gun control policy.