Activity Number Four

Activity number four was a very sobering experience. I do badly with names to begin with and I got so panicked with that the first go around was a disaster. I exceeded the time and when trying to see if it submitted accidentally started the second go so that did not go well, but the second time I had focus and really absorbed what the activity was showing me. I know far too few names from far too many categories.

For ethnic groups that I could think of names from in order of easiest to hardest was: white, black, asian, hispanic/latino, and then middle eastern. For white I had a name for every category except women before 1600's I could think of multiple examples from Victorian England but they didn't fit the time frame and women from mythology didn't count. I had no trouble naming the men, and in fact with the exception of naming black men and women the numbers of men that I could name were always higher. I knew a decent number of prominent figures such as our president, Martin Luther King Jr. and Maya Angelou. I knew a good range of names of Asian men, not really due to any class and more to do with my obsession of Japanese history and art. I was having no end of trouble however trying to find any examples of women who where not actors. I was completely lost when it came to naming hispanic men who were not actors or Juan Peron, and I only could think of Sonia Sotameior and Eva Peron for women. I was completely and utterly lost when it came to naming anyone of middle eastern descent, I could only think of dictators and Muhammad Ali. I could think of absolutely no women.

It is clear that "history" as it is taught in the US is the story of white men and in very, very, very recent times prominent figures who have stood out and fought for equality. Now we are starting to get to learn about prominent African American leaders, at long last, and some Hispanic leaders. However, mostly what is taught about Hipanic leaders is about dictators that the United States had conflict with, and the representation of middle easterner's is even worse. The majority of what we here is about countries and leaders who the United States currently views as a threats, the crusades and the Turkish empire. These are not generally seen as positive things in the US, never mind that in the crusades that it was the European armies that destroyed the irrigation systems that are a root of many of today's tensions. Asian ethnic groups are well represented in a world history class and if you are learning about World War Two. World War Two doesn't tend to be flattering and world history doesn't provide many specific names.

The reason that these groups are ignored is because, the group in the united states that has the most power is white males. The history of the US has been, white people came and whiped out the Native Americans, involuntarily brought over African slaves and did it's best to keep everyone else out of the country. The Alien and Sedition Acts effectively kept out almost all middle easterners, limited Asian immigration to almost nothing and kept "undesirable" Europeans to the bare minimum. It set the pattern that America has held most of its life: it says to the world you are welcome and means if you are too different stay out. This is not a message that schools really want to teach us, as we went though the civil rights movement, so that means that the country has forgotten its past and is now everything that it claims to be. In other words a really big heaping helping of denial.

Backtracking a bit to discuss gender: thought the majority of history--that has written records--the western/European world has been primarily patriarchal. These societies have at times been to the point where women did not have rights at all; starting around the time of the industrial revolution and the enlightenment this let up somewhat, and varied from country to country. Even so women were still clearly second class to their male counterparts. When women finally won suffrage it was during a time where things got a tad better; however, things were still very bad. The greatest strides came around the same time as ending segregation; remember this is within most of our parent's lifetimes, and then anti discrimination laws came into effect. Women could enter the work force more freely, oh and I almost forgot to mention World War Two, women got a very real taste of freedom when they got factory jobs which was the impetus to demand societal change. On paper things seem equal, except for pay, however; for both ethnicity and gender the American response is largely the same earnest attempts and strides, that once attitudes had changed slightly those in power tried to forget about the past wrongs as soon as possible.

What is it about the US that makes it try to deny everything that it did oppressively historically?

How does this effect the ability for real intercultural communication today?