By Summer Cuatepotzo Perez
Impactful. Speechless. Astounded. Disgust. Anger. Confusion. Sadness.
None of these can describe how emotionally overwhelmed I personally felt, my physical response- tears. You ask… where in the world did you experience this? Or what happened that made you feel this way? The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, which offers the cruel American history of racial injustice. This museum is unique because it’s like you have traveled back into history to see the cruel truth that has been hidden but the only constraint is that you can not do anything to change the past or even help those who were suffering. I invite anyone that has the chance to come down to the Legacy Museum!
I wanted to point out that I did not get through the first museum, there are a total of three museums. As I’ve been reflecting on American history, I have seen a lot of parallels with what is currently happening and the history of oppression and white supremacy. But everything started with a narrative of power and economic development. Does this sound familiar? This relates to the environmental crisis we are facing today.
With a narrative of wanting more power and to be wealthy at the cost of others and degradation of the environment. What surprises me the most is that European settlers came to conquer the America’s at the cost of millions of indigenous tribes killed, losing their homes and forced into labor and widespread diseases. In the report called The Transatlantic Slave Trade, published by Equal Justice Initiative, the Historian David Briton Davis called this time “the greatest known population loss in human history” once this population went down they had to look for another source of slavery that would help them get rich. You know how the story goes and is currently still an issue that has led to greater problems towards people of color and low income communities which leads us further into the bigger issue of social injustice.
The sad truth is that the European settlers came to the Americas to look for freedom and equality but resorted to cruelty by separating families, millions of people losing their homes, the killing of both innocent kids and adults, lyching, sexual assault, auctioning people, and disenfranchisement.
Take this moment to close your eyes and imagine if you were the one in this position and had lived through this suffering. Would you have forgiven these people that not only dehumanized African Americans but they themselves were not human. The slave owners even tried to separate the African people with conflict between two categories: the favored ones and the starved and poor. This trend is still happening today.
The African American community stayed strong. They were so resilient and what kept them up, alive, and hopeful was music, faith, and language. What breaks my heart is the African Americans were willing to forgive the people that did this to them.
We should use the Bible in the correct way and not use it to justify cruel actions.
We should not dehumanize people just because of their religion and beliefs
We should not judge or discriminate against others because of their skin color
We should all exercise our rights
Our right to VOTE
We should change for the better of tomorrow and future generations
We are not alone
We are unified
Everyone is beautiful no matter their skin color, if you are tall or short, or if you are big or small.
All of that is superficial
This does not define who you are, OWN YOURSELF
You are worthy, never forget that!
We have to stand up together and not let history repeat itself.
STAY STRONG, WE CAN DO THIS.
A quote I really liked when we went to the Voting Rights Museum, there was a mural near the museum that said “Education is the Key to Control Our Destiny.” This does not mean we will fall into color blindness. We have to open our eyes really wide and notice our world around us and how much color influences our life chances, social mobility and impacts our wellbeing.
We shall not take things for granted and live in comfort.
-By Summer Cuatepotzo Perez
