In history, people of different colors were pushed apart. When an African American gets killed by a white person, the white person doesn’t get any punishments. And in normal life, everything is set apart, too. Different colored people have to drink from different water fountains, go to different schools, play in different areas, etc. In the book Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, an African American schoolgirl accidently bumped into a white schoolgirl, and the African American had a punishment by being pushed off the sidewalk. That isn’t fair.
In the 18th century, there was slavery in America, and the European Settlers had make themselves comfortable and getting poor African Americans to be slaves for them, and to work without pay. These days, the rich European Settlers treat the African Americans how drivers of carriages treat cows or horses or animals. But after President Lincoln lead people to be against slavery, and he tells the badness of it. Soon after, there came the Civil War. It ended with the north winning and slavery ended, but many people still are against it.
Even nowadays, European Settlers are more respected than African Americans, and they are also richer than the African Americans. Even though segregation has stopped and both the European Settlers and the African Americans have made up and tried to be nicer, with African American having more rights, European Settlers still get more power. They might get more salary than African Americans, and are more welcome in stores. They think themselves higher than any of the other Americans, even more than Asian Americans.
Now, many African Americans are treated better, and lots of people are careful to call them African Americans, and treat them as our equal. In the public, it is forbidden to call them by their color. We should respect them, and try to be different from the way we treated them in the past. In the past, the government likes the European Settlers, and they agree with having African Americans as slaves to work for them without pay, or food. But now, if we disrespect African Americans, the government will be against us, and also be kind to them.
We should read books of different eras, different races, and different religions. Reading books similar to daily life teaches us nothing but that reading is fun. But reading historical books help us learn about the past; reading about foreigners we can learn about other countries, and how to help them; reading about different beliefs tells us about other people and their lives. I think reading different kinds of books for a change is very good for us. We learn about segregation, and how we should now respect African Americans. All people’s lives matter.
Comments