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Post your reflections on the current health epidemic.  Please use best practices for writing on line.  Fact check conspiracy theories.  Evaluate news sources.  Take the time to read and understand scientific information about viruses and how they spread.

You should also reflect on your experiences, what you’ve learned, how you are learning about the situation, public healthy, psychological aspects of your own life.

You will get credit for your reflections on these as well.

Try to edit your post before you click send.  How can I make my communication easier to understand to the reader?  Can I write my sentences more clearly?  What is the next step in my flow of thought?  What benefit will the reader get from what I am writing?

3/12/20

Hannah Jones Reflection (by Selines A.)

Question 6:

Based on the Hannah-Jones, back in the 1940s, Mississippi was an apartheid state and defeated majority of the black population through horrific acts of violence. The white residents killed and hung more black people than those in any other state. Colored citizens had no legal rights. They were not allowed to vote, enter any public facilities, and find any other work besides picking cotton. It would be considered a crime if colored women went into the same room as a white woman was in, or if a colored woman bumped into another white woman. White people were more privileged than black people and that’s unfair on their part. Black people are just as equal as any other white person. They deserve respect and shouldn’t be treated any less than because of their skin tone. It’s a disgusting behavior which I one hundred percent disagree with. I can’t begin to imagine what this experience must’ve been like for those who had to go through it.

Homeless people now go through a similar situation. Because of their appearance, people prefer not to be around them nor offer any help. If they were to enter any public facility, they would be asked to step out. Sometimes they are physically abused if they beg for money. Homeless people become desperate for food because they go days without eating or drinking anything. People don’t see it from this perspective though, they see it more as a bother. Homeless people are also removed from corners of the street, they use to rest, by police officers. Homeless people are at higher risk of catching any disease or sickness because they are not provided with the proper care that they need. People usually believe homeless people are at fault for being in the situation they are in. Truthfully speaking, we do not know the real reason behind their situation. Homelessness can be caused by a number of reasons such as mental illness, substance abuse, medical issues that were left untreated, abuse and violence, traumatic situations, or not having enough money to afford housing. Instead of being judgemental towards homeless people, why don’t we stop and think to ourselves how hard this is on them? Why can’t we stop being so heartless and lend a helping hand to those who need it the most? Homeless people are not cared for and are treated less as a person, and so were slaves.

What do you think about Wilentz’s concept of “relentless unforeseen,”  that we do not know what our actions will lead to, and that throughout the 1776 period and the 1865 period, people white and black did not know that slavery would be abolished.  Yet it was.

Question:  do we have the power as human beings to make history, or does it just happen to us enforced by fate?

Hannah-Jones also believes that human beings make history.  One of her main points is that the work and deeds that the African American people, the effort to demand abolition of slavery and then equal rights, is an example of people acting in history to improve their lives and to create and contribute to the concept of freedom as something that human beings can achieve.  Nevertheless, they have been blocked by oppressive, reactionary forces.  But Hannah-Jones point is that people did this.

1. Was abolition of slavery inevitable according to Wilentz?  “Inevitable”–means it had to happen and could not have not happened.   What does he mean by “relentless unforeseen?”  Does this agree or disagree with Hannah-Jones?   When we look back at history, how do we see the events vs. how did the people at the time experience them?
2. One main difference between Wilentz and Hannah-Jones is that Wilentz does not tell the story of the role of the African-American in liberation from enlsavement.  On the other hand. Hannah-Jones’ thesis is that the African-American contribution to abolition of slavery and the continued struggle for equality for all is of the utmost importance in American history.
3. Wilentz’s main point is that is was not known at the time that slavery would be abolished.  There was a great struggle between proslavery and antislavery world views among the white population.
4. In paragraph 3, Wilentz references the 1740-1750s “explosive consciousness of man’s freedom to shape the world in accordance with his own will and reason.”  In general, this refers to the “enlightenment.”  Hannah-Jones will be quick to point out that this “universal freedom” was not extended to the enslaved, and slavery did exist at that time.  Wilentz is arguing that the moral rejection of slavery was advanced by “scrutinizing inequality, personal sovereignty, national sovereignty and servititue of every kind” (paragraph 4).
5. In paragraph 5, he says that though slavery had always existed, “the struggle to abolish it came abruptly.”  He sees the American Revolution as part of this process, that there was an anti-slavery movement in the Declaration of Independence, but it was violently opposed by the proslavery forces that existed based on feudal and ancient world view of conquest of peoples and social hierarchy.
6. Write your own reflection (400-600words) on the first 19 paragraphs of Wilentz.  Compare it to Hannah-Jones.  Post it by Monday 1pm.
7. Note: I will make comments on your previous Hannah-Jones posts by Monday 1pm.