It’s Not Over Yet
Conflicting views on the issue of racism makes it more difficult to solve Sarah Barney Staff Reporter
An urban, stylish hairstyle for white girls can get black girls in trouble or fired from their jobs. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has exploded all over the Internet and the news in response to deaths of black people. Just this September, anti-black propaganda posters were found hanging around the campus at the University of Michigan. Racism is not yet a thing of the distant past as these disturbing examples show. While white people today did not personally enslave anyone, it was only decades ago that Martin Luther King Jr. marched
on Washington and that segregation ended. Those events happened in our grandparents’, and many of our parents’, life times. Sadly, it would appear that everyone is still not on the same page in regards to racism. A recent study published on behalf of Association For Psychological Science shows that white people perceive anti-black bias as significantly lower than black people perceive it. On a scale of one to 10, white respondents rated anti-black bias an
ARTWORK CREATED ON CANVA BY SARAH BARNEY
average of between three and four while black respondents rated anti-black bias on average as a six out of 10. The study also showed that white respondents showed an increase in rating for anti-white bias. “White people probably don’t think that it’s as bad because they’re not the ones that it’s happening to,” freshman Kaylie Shepard said. “People aren’t hating on them for being white but it’s actually happening to
black people so they feel it more.” There’s a good chance racism will continue to be an unsolvable issue for the foreseeable future until everyone can get on the same page. Unless we all pay attention and listen to what people are saying it’s not likely that America as a whole will be able sync up in the necessary way to end bias. “We’re not working together,” Shepard said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to work through it in the near future, but probably not. It’s a problem that’s been ongoing forever and it’ll probably just keep happening.”
Christopher Columbus
the turkey of Thanksgiving Kali Roskowski Staff Reporter
T
hanksgiving, the getting together of family and friends to laugh and share memories that the whole group can not help but smile at. Mounds and mounds of food will leave the whole family with full stomachs and tired eyes. However, many forget, or lack the knowledge of, the story behind this holiday. If someone were to think that the whole story of the first Thanksgiving was as simple as Christopher Columbus voyaging over to the New World, and the Pilgrims, big belt buckles and all, sitting down with the Indians for one big feast, that person thought wrong. The Manataka American Indian Council (MAIC), an assembly that exists to preserve and protect
Manataka, which is known as the Place of Peace, said that this event did take place, but it only took place once. According to the MAIC, a group of English explorers landed in the territory of the Patuxet Indians, and the explorers rounded them up, then set sail back home, leaving behind smallpox for those who managed to escape boarding the ship. Only one of the Patuxet survived, and was the Indian who Columbus met when the English landed in Massachusetts Bay. What is known as the “First Thanksgiving” did occur after this. With the years that followed, the new settlers murdered 700 natives in just one day, being unarmed
men, women and children alike. The colonists attacked village after village, these “thanksgiving” feasts being held after each massacre. Boats headed back to the ports of New England carrying 500 enslaved Native Americans at a time. This brutality is what Americans celebrate every year, unknowingly. Thanks to Christopher Columbus, the “discoverer” of the New World, the holiday known as the blessing of the harvest is celebrating the deaths of thousands of Native Americans, and the conquering of their lands that English settlers unrightfully took. While the event known as the “First Thanksgiving” did happen, it was not the first. According
to The Jacksonville Historical Society, a non-profit organization in Jacksonville, Florida that maintains an archive of historical events open to the public, with tens of thousands of documents, photographs, rare books and architectural artifacts relating to Jacksonville-area history, Spanish conquistadors were exploring the region now known as Florida, soon after Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. Eventually the Spanish created a civilization, and in 1565, more conquistadors landed to settle. Upon landing, they were greeted by the Timucuan Indians, Native Americans who occupied the village of Seloy. The Spanish set up a makeshift
altar to celebrate the first Christian Mass on American soil, and shared this moment with the Native Americans in attempt to spread Catholic faith. Afterwards, the actual first Thanksgiving took place in celebration of safe arrival of the Spanish and as a welcome to their land. The “first Thanksgiving” in Plymouth took place 56 years later. Americans celebrate Thanksgiving for the right reasons, but praise yet another historical figure that society blows up to be a great being. In reality, however, Christopher Columbus is nothing better than a murderer who pillaged and plundered in order to receive kudos for something that had already been done. Opinion Uncaged
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