Most of the things we get to enjoy today were bequeathed to us from our history. In this case we have our heritage, traditions, legacies, birthright and freedom. Therefore, it is important to learn our history. Therefore, I disagree with my friend’s opinion. He argues that, reading of history and literature of race relations in America is no longer necessary since everyone enjoys equal rights and opportunities today.
People with no history have no future. Learning about our American history helps us to understand our society. Like in terms of how it has changed with time. It also helps us develop a sense of identity, preserve stories for future generations, source inspiration, learn from past mistakes and enable us to be good citizens to our nation.
It is by learning through history that slavery is being eliminated. Unlike in the 1800’s when slavery was very predominant in the United States, today we get to enjoy our freedom both blacks and whites alike and slavery is not an issue anymore. In his narrative, Fredrick Douglass explains in details how the life of a slave was like. From the time he was born, separated from the mother at the age of twelve, mistreated by his many masters, his journey out of ignorance to freedom.
It helps us to understand how slavery was like and why we need to eradicate it. He not only covers on slavery and freedom from the political, historical and legal angle but also at a philosophical angle. He argues that Freedom is not something that is given to us, but rather something that we individually have to find (Douglass, 1999).
Learning History has helped eradicate racism that dates way back to 1600 as Howard Zinn explains in âA people’s History of the United States’. According to Zinn, racism resulted from the unequal treatment towards the black people leading to an amalgamation of oppression and contempt. In addition, even before the Africans came to America, black color was associated to something distasteful while white was associated to beauty like in the Elizabethan poetry.
This color variation was affiliated to the black and white people and developed a prejudice that later turned to hatred and brutality between the two. This concept led to the enslavement of millions of black people in America (Zinn, 2010). Without a clear understanding of this part of history, slavery would not have evolved to the current citizenship, freedom and human rights that we enjoy in our constitution.
Last but not least, the letter from a Birmingham jail by Martin Luther King Jr emerges as a source of hope for many Blacks. They jailed him for taking part in a non-violent protest against discrimination in public places on the basis of one’s color. Were it not for people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, equality would remain a strange phenomenon in our current society and everyone would not be enjoying equal rights and opportunities today (King,1997).
Conclusively, the issue of whether reading history and literature of race relations is necessary or not, raises different arguments in support and against the topic. However, my argument on this topic is that reading history and literature of race relations in America is necessary since this will help many generations to understand, appreciate and defend their heritage.
References
AcunÌa, R. (2004). Occupied America. New York: Pearson Longman.
Alexie, S. (1996). The summer of black widows. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Hanging Loose Press.
Douglass, F. (1999). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Franzen, J. (2010). Freedom. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Golden, T. (2010). Harlem. New York: Rizzoli.
Hayden, R. & Glaysher, F. (1985). Collected poems. New York: Live right.
Hughes, L., Rampersad, A., Hubbard, D., & Sanders, L. (2001).The collected works of Langston Hughes. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
King, M. (1997). I have a dream. New York: Scholastic Press.
Momaday, N. (1992). In the presence of the sun. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Oliver, J. (1994). An examination of rhetorical strategies used by Malcolm X in his speech “The ballot or the bullet”.
Randall, D. (1965). Ballad of Birmingham. Detroit, Mich.: Broadside Press.
Rhynes, M. (2002). I, too, sing America. Greensboro, N.C.: Morgan Reynolds.
Steele, S. (1998). A dream deferred. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Trethewey, N. (2002). Bellocq’s Ophelia. Saint Paul, Minn.: Gray wolf Press.
Zinn, H. (2010). A people’s history of the United States. HarperCollins.