Final Reflection

In symphony with this class, this quarter I was also taking Biological Anthropology and Race & Anthropology. This choice of classes that ended up all dealing with race in some form or another was inadvertent, but sometimes weird things happen in my life so in a way I think it was fated. And surprisingly, the things we have learned about race, labor, and migration has never been more relevant and brought to American consciousness than in our current environment with the protests which call for the country to look at its historical and current treatment of marginalized people.

While there are so many things I would want to reflect on owing to the brilliant Christine and my wonderful, insightful classmates, a few concepts are my takeaway points.

Afterlives of slavery: Most people say racism doesn’t exist. There are no explicitly racist laws and there is a lot of conflation of the lack of those laws with an open, racism free society-- in which being A RACIST, and being explicitly racist is shunned upon . However, systemic oppression of black people, during slavery as well as after slavery, has led to a really skewed “naturalization” of their socio-economic status. I learned that we must look back. And now to argue against the froo-froo idea that racism doesn’t exist, I have many historical and literary tools to explain. The prison system as the new Jim Crowe has also been eye-opening.

Exclusion: “Economically needed, political undesirable”. Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Indian, Latin American. Tactics were used to divide and conquer different groups so they could be exploited for low wages. Denationalization, Deindigenization. The US has applied so many of these justifications. My nationality as Mexican, being deemed illegal, has done great harm to my self as I grew up, but learning so much has done much to patch and strengthen.

Solidarity: And last of all, this idea really hits a chord. The best thing we can do is have solidarity for those who are marginalized. This way, whatever race or socio-economic tier you belong to, there is a way to help a cause.

We talked a lot about political education and political awakenings. I think this class has been it for me. Before, I thought that until I was in a higher social position—holding a degree, earning lots of money, influential, and perhaps when I became a citizen, I could not do anything about what I saw was wrong. But as in America is in the Heart, as well as our texts and films about labour organizing, I see the possibility of change from the working class.