Civil Rights Reflection

One of the lessons learned from the Civil Rights movement is that skin color is a barrier that people use as an excuse to promote racism. Psychologically, if we were to remove all the skin on our bodies, everyone would have the same body and internal structure (in general), making us the same and as equals to one another. However when you add the skin back to the body, everything changes. People judge others because of their race and their skin color. This causes everything to be separated--in other words, segregated. Back then, everything was segregated. From public restrooms to water fountains, to schools, and even parks. The Civil Rights movement was a struggle for equality among white Americans and African-Americans. What caused this struggle was that people did not accept nor did they want to accept people who are different from themselves. In other words, they did not want to accept a person with a different skin color. The lesson is that underneath, we are all equal and the same, however only the skin is the barrier that keeps us from thinking that way.

Today in America, there are still struggles in terms of equity and equality. One main struggle is that there are people who are against others of a different race. For example, the KKK is an organization that supports white supremacy and acts violently or threatens African-Americans as well as other groups. There is also institutional racism where African-Americans in prison receive a longer or harsher sentence than white inmates. Unintentionally, white folk move out of towns or cities in which they feel that the place they used to live wasn't as what it "used to be." In general, America still struggles with different forms of racism because there are people who do not want to accept the idea of everyone being equal or the same.

In the present today, there are many ideas and events connected to the Civil Rights movement. One event such as the Oakland Occupy reflect on the forms of nonviolent protest. The citizens only occupied an area in Oakland, peacefully protesting about the economy and the government to the point where the police would come in and violently beat them just to leave the area. Another event that would show peaceful and nonviolent forms of protesting, and as well as police brutality, would be the UC Davis police pepper spraying students. There was one recent article regarding how an Ohio landlady hung up a sign on the public pool saying, "White Only." One of her tenants is an African-American family whose daughter was the cause of the sign. The landlady's excuse for putting up the sign was because she didn't want the pool to get "dirty" from the chemicals of the hair products the girl used. This caused many residents to be outraged of the landlady's act. Overall, today the idea of racism still continues nation wide as well as certain groups of people rejecting another concern.