It has taken me a bit of time to gather my thoughts in a way that would clearly express my sentiments during our current period in history. As a white person, I had to ask myself what I could do to support my friends and loved ones who are people of color, keeping in mind that the reality of what Jane Elliott says, "there is only one race: the human race," citing research that shows that the origins of the human race began in Africa and that, based, on this information, we are all simply varying shades of melanin. While I was collecting my thoughts, I figured that education was the best place to start, since there was a stay at home order and also as a response to my inherent bias, which I was aware of and trying to avoid from the beginning. I ended on both education and action, although the latter came as a result of the former, which I will explain in the review below on The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till. In case you looking for an immediate way to respond quickly to our shared environment, you can find information about The Million Letter Movement on the website or the group Facebook page. As an aside, two things that I didn't know about Jane's "blue eyes" experiment are 1) with the first class she did the experiment, she asked the children first if they wanted to learn about discrimination and how it feels before conducting the experiment and 2) that one of the letters in response to the experiment was this ironic and appalling quotation, "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children? Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage." As part of my education, although I turned to books as I often do to learn, I may write an upcoming post about the books I have read, as I find that movies are a faster and easier route to education during a pandemic. The first movie I watched was Liberty and Slavery: The Paradox of America's Founding Fathers. I found it enlightening and insightful, including the quotes about the bible, which can be summarized as follows: the original translation of slave was servant, and the history of indentured servants is that they were working a certain number of years in exchange for passage and "freedom dues," as opposed to enslaved persons who were kidnapped against their will and forced to work their entire life without a contract that promises freedom after the contract period was over. In this proves an important realization - that the bible does not condone slavery, as so many believe that it does, or that you and I may have even been taught as children to be true. There is nothing godly about slavery, and beyond common sense telling us this, we now have tangible evidence to prove the obvious truth behind this statement. When I watched The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, this is when I knew that I had to act, above and beyond simply gaining and sharing the education I received. As I was watching the movie, I realized that my grandmother was alive when Emmett Till, a 14 year-old boy was murdered for engaging with a white woman (i.e. handing her change for gum, and later whistling at her as a boyish prank), and I thought to myself, "If she was alive during this time, what did she do?" which I quickly translated to the self reflection of "If I am alive during this time, what I am going to do?" I realized that I could look back and have the same experience years later, or I could actually take action now and make a difference. In the intention of writing a post that is an acceptable length for reading, I will end for now and pick up with my next blogposts to review some or all of the following movies, shows, and/or documentaries: Freedom Summer Anita Hill: Speaking Truth to Power I Am Not Your Negro You Belong to Me: Sex, Race, and Murder in the South Salute Just Mercy Life of a King An Ordinary Hero The Uncomfortable Truth Brian Banks Marshall Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution The Hate U Give Harriet Tubman: They Called Her Moses Where Do We Go From Here? In the meantime, if you haven't started your own personal journey of education and action, I encourage you to do so now. And if you have, I would love for you to share with me your insights and recommendations, so that we may fulfill our calling of learning from and growing with each other.
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AuthorValerie Ellis, who is in alignment with the Black Lives Matter Movement and everyone whose life is impacted, now or before, by times of social injustice. Archives
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