Virtual Field Trip

Improved Essays
Upon entering this virtual field trip, the first exhibit that I was very interested in was the Slavery and Freedom exhibition. The reason why, is because this is where the first roots of African-Americans were planted. This exhibition shows the story of slavery and freedom in the history of America. It begins in the 15th century, along Africa and Europe, coming all the way over to the United States. This exhibition ends with the civil war, and the reconstruction of a nation. I was very shocked to see in how much the African-American struggled, from their inception to the Caribbean/Americas, til even present day. Their struggle is incalculable to other contemporary groups of people.
Forthgoing, I then waddled through the exhibition of how African
…show more content…
When we define diversity, it is an amalgam of different races, nationalities, religions, and sexes coming together in a community or an organization. When we value the differences in people that come from different backgrounds, have different skillsets, have a certain attitude to things, and bring new ideas to the table, we can harness these differences for the better of everyone. Cultural diversity is very important, because it gives people an opportunity to experience things they never understand and want to understand and are not accustomed to. When there is diversity, we can understand all aspects, all opinions, and all ideas of everyone. We can combat problems and issues of the world from every angle. Diversity makes us non-linear in understanding the world and its people. The purpose of this exhibit was to explore African-American history and their culture. This exhibit fits with the many subjects we have spoken about in our course, because African-Americans have had their bad piece of the American pie. They are people who centuries ago, were brought here on many boats. They were enslaved and beaten til’ their spirits were broken. They were given some freedom, but still were under the gist of oppression. African American leaders were also assassinated which brought the morale down …show more content…
I now understand the struggle of the African-American. From their involuntary travels from Africa, to the Civil Rights movement, to present-day. I can now say that I understand their plight. I learned that African-Americans have been denied opportunity for a very long time and has had an effect on the community, evolution, and progress of the race. They were kidnap and enslaved, involuntarily brought over on boats. They were denied education, killed or punished if they were caught educating themselves. They developed their own style of music for communication. The African-American sought freedom in the midst of oppression. They strove until they were finally free… but when they were free, they were still oppressed. Denied opportunity to mingle in the mainstream, unable to participate in American activities, segregated from doing anything that the whites were doing. In my opinion, it would be quite heartless to not understand why the African-American is deep-rooted with pain. This excursion helped me develop a much more tolerant perspective of African-American issues. This course, for example, has taught me about cultural diversity, and has aided me in understanding the issues of all races. With this knowledge, I can apply this to Native American struggles, the struggle of the Jewish people, and other groups of people in history who have been persecuted by

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In today’s society, racism, prejudice, and stereotyping is often frowned upon and seen as politically incorrect. This wasn’t always the case, because just four decades ago, racism, prejudice and stereotyping was seen as a social norm. However, thanks to great leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and many others, we as people are allowed to live in a more diverse and welcoming environment that gives equal rights and respect to everyone no matter race, size, or country of origin. Although it is important to recognize the progress we have made throughout the years, it is also crucial that students are aware and understand the numerous obstacles that people of color had to go through, to further appreciate…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Furthermore, people of color who reject Africa are also rejecting themselves without realizing it due to the fact that generations of ancestors commenced in Africa. From education, minorities will learn that majority of the African American experience and culture progressed outside of American society. Researching African history will give an individual a deeper understanding of the many milestones that occurred in previous time. For minorities, it will be essential to know how diverse societies have added to society along with the relationship between past and present. History will indicate how various African Americans have contributed throughout the years in different ways, including the commitments that may go…

    • 1115 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Imagine yourself working endlessly, scorching hot days out in the fields plowing, planting and harvesting your crops. I work so hard to keep my family together so we can try to create a future. However, this land is not my land. I can’t keep and cherish all my harvest for my family and I. I am required to sacrifice a portion of the harvest to the white landowner. This situation draws a picture of what the African Americans during this time period went through.…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stripped From Dignity Much of America’s current society is unaware of the cruelty era that American ancestors walked upon. It is to no surprise that African Americans have been discriminated for centuries and it wasn’t till recent years that their enslavement was abolished. Yet little did we know of the inhumanity conditions that they overcame. It wasn’t until historians dug up the muddy truth that we Americans can know value and honor those slaves who gave us their living story inside the American nightmare.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For the African American community it was a period of terror, neglect, disenfranchisement, poverty, and veritable slavery to a white power structure. However, in this age of desperation and despondency, the African American community prevailed through perseverance and self-actualization by resisting an oppressive racist government. By finding their origins and cultural roots the black community was able to revitalize their culture and society despite the intense opposition of white America. Consequently, this process of revival assisted many African Americans in regaining their humanity, rights, and agency. Furthermore, this resistance over the course of several decades established the foundations for the modern civil rights movement that toppled this oppressive and racist…

    • 1026 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine being born in the 1840s while slavery was happening around America. While we are imagining this also imagine that you are the black child born into this slavery and having to go through the beating and mistreatment while growing up. Later in life as an African American you must go through segregation, Jim crow laws, fugitive slave act, the civil war, the 14th and 15th amendment and lastly the black codes. Now no one wants to ever go through this as child or as an adult, but there was a person that did and his name was Allen Allensworth. Through his struggle as a young child and later as an adult he would later find a town or better known as a community that African Americans could live in peacefully.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Unpacking: Black in America For the cultural event I attended a seminar at the African American resource center at Cal State Fullerton. The seminar focused on “Unpacking: Black in America” gathered African American students from CSUF to speak upon how they felt as a minority in this country. They also shared out their personal stories and experiences on being African American. Gwendolyn Alexis is a faculty liaison for the African American Resource Center who facilitated the event. Professor Alexis is an advocate for African American and minorities she brings knowledge and support for these communities.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal and are endowed with unalienable Rights, including Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Reading further into this statement, one can see that the men Jefferson was writing about were caucasian males. Women and African-Americans were excluded from this definition of equality. The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, by Martin Luther King Jr., show the struggles of women and African-Americans respectively. Women and African-Americans were not represented and, were it not for King or Stanton, these groups would still be disenfranchised today.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why is it important to document hidden histories? Before viewing Slavery by Another Name (2012), I was not fully aware of the atrocities committed against African Americans after slavery had been abolished. I knew that newly freed slaves had a hard time adjusting to freedom, but I never fathomed the oppression and torment they were subjected to as free Americans. My history classes throughout my education never included information regarding involuntary servitude and laws that were created to deliberately re-enslave African Americans and prevent them from having mobility.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans have had a long and burdened history in the United States, beginning with the institution of slavery and continuing on to the widespread racial injustice that they persevered and still endure today. As we look deep into the historical backdrop of America we cannot deny that African Americans have had a profound effect on the character of the United States of America. They helped to change the face of not just America, but of themselves. They called out for liberty and equality wherever the opportunity had arisen; battling ardently for the proclaimed equality that the Declaration of Independence decreed. This fight has been going on even before the U.S. was formed, through violent and bloody slave revolts to passionate and…

    • 1303 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    African Americans thought that all their pain and suffering would be over. It stated that all slaves would be freed, but hundred years later as Martin Luther King Jr. said in his speech “the Negro still is not free”. Blacks were raging with anger because of the things…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans play a vitally important role in the United States today, but how can we image how they have suffered countless oppressions for a long time in the twentieth century. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was published for a long time, the genuine equality was not being achieved by countless black people (Goodheart). Some of them were still segregated by white people just because of racism. What we should give attention to is that black people still lived in the bottom of the American society. The society had completely divided human beings into two categories at that time.…

    • 2074 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There once was a boy that was born on a plantation in Alabama in 1852 into a slave family. Slavery was stronger than ever in the south with all the money plantation owners were making off the labor of enslaved African Americans. The little boy’s master sent him to work on the cotton fields at the young age of six, and he had to work to sunrise to sunset under the supervision of slave masters. The slave masters were cruel to the slaves, and they would enjoy humiliating and beating the slaves. One day the plantation owner invited his slaves to have thanksgiving dinner with his family, and the boy saw a book in the plantation owner’s house.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans and their influential leaders fought in many ways against racism, segregation, and discrimination following the Civil War until present time. African Americans’ struggle to achieve racial equality and full citizenship in the United States forced them to find ways to enhance their quality of life and establish strong political foundations capable of achieving meaningful social, cultural and economic changes. Their fight for equality led them to create durable movements that ultimately helped attain African Americans’ position in today’s society. The Reconstruction era, 1865-1877, was the time following the Civil War.…

    • 1851 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Identity is one of the most important concepts that humans have; it allows us to understand who we are, who we have been and who we will be. An individual’s sense of identity is based on their cultural identity as it links a person to their heritage which helps them identify with others who share the same traditions, practices and beliefs that they do. Once a person is robbed of their traditional beliefs, heritage and other aspects of their native culture- they begin to lose a sense of self and ultimately their personal and cultural identity will start to fade as there is no connection to what was once important in their lives. This situation is in fact true for African-Americans, as in the past, majority of their ancestors were forced from…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays