Global Studies Reflections
4/6/22 Reflection on Palestine unit
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Our Palestinian unit gave me a whole new perspective on Palestinians and their culture. Hearing Dr. Rabia, who was from Palestine, talk about his childhood experience, gave me a better understanding of what Palestinians have gone through. I liked the connection between Palestinian and Ukrainian refugees and how the world is doing so much for those from Ukraine, but the world does nothing for the Palestinian ones who have suffered just as much. Faisal Salehs Palestinian museum is deffinatley important because it is preserving Palestinian culture. Around the world, Palestine is not recognized as a country which means its culture isn’t recognized either. The museum not only displays Palestinian culture, but it also serves as a place where the artwork can be preserved. Many people have negative views surrounding Palestine, so the museum also does a good job of representing the positive side. The children's artwork definitely stuck with me the most because knowing those drawings depict things that young children have seen just shows the destruction in this conflict. I definitely feel like a better global citizen now that I have seen both sides of the conflict.
Reflection on Caste By Isabel Wilkerson
I am not a huge fan of reading, but when I am reading a book that I enjoy and is interesting, it is hard for me to put it down. That is how I felt when reading Caste. Right from the beginning the writer got into what the book was about. For me if books start off slow I will be disinterested quickly. She did a really good job of explaining the point she was trying to make by using analogies then sharing actual experiences of people. Most of the stories she told were often terrible and made me feel uncomfortable, but I know they are critical to understanding history. Another part of the book that I enjoyed was when she explained the caste systems in Nazi Germany, India, and the united states. Hearing the similarities between each system and how they were built based off of each other was shocking, but it explained to me why there is still reminisce of Caste today. I found that most of what she talked about is connected to human rights and I realized that the world hasn’t made much progress on the issue as we still have major human rights violations today.
Caste was one of the better books I’ve read over the past years, but there were still some things that I wasn’t a big fan of. I was waiting for the part where she would talk about all of the progress we made over the past years, but that never came. It also would have been nice to hear about ways we can break apart the Caste system because she spent the whole book talking about its history and impact. While reading I couldn’t look away from our country's history and I know that I did nothing wrong so it’s up to people like me to make change. Another thing that really made me think was when she talked about how the Nazi’s based their caste system on our’s in America. I had heard this before, but the way it was broken down into exact similarities really helped me understand. It's hard for me to connect Caste to another book because I've never read anything like it. Caste opened me to a whole nother view that I had never thought about before and it helped me understand the things we've turned our backs on.
Reflection on attending the ADL Walk Against Hate
Attending the ADL Walk Against Hate gave me time to think about all forms of hate that we see in our country today. Before I joined The Global Studies Program I had not heard of The Anti-Defamation League, but over the past week I was able to learn about them and their mission to end all forms of hate in our country. When it comes to fighting hate and racism I think it's important to have big organizations that we can help. It's very hard for one individual to stop hate because it is such a big issue so If we can support ADL the fight against hate becomes a lot easier. Fighting hate can also be very hard because it often brings violence, but I remember someone saying this morning “ADL confronts hate”. That is a great statement because anybody can say they are against hate, but the only way people can live free from it is if we confront it. All of the speakers at today's event were able to bring something to the table, but Art Miller's speech stuck with me the most. He talked about a couple of different things such as him being friends with Emmit till and how he was proud to be a black man. When he talked about why people hate others and mentioned that they are the uncomfortable ones because people are being themselves. This event opened my eyes to a great organization that has made a huge impact on the fight against Hate. I’m sure I will get more opportunities to work with ADL and their fight to end all hate in America.