Reflection

I'm not really sure where to begin with this reflection. At times during this quarter I was moved, perplexed, confused, and all sorts of other emotions too. Sometimes I wasn't sure where we were going, but looking back we have come quite a long way. We have covered so many different themes and this class has really made me think. As a white guy so many of the issues we have discussed are things I had never thought much about before, but are now things that will remain salient in my mind indefinitely.

In terms of my favorite blog post, I would probably say it was my first -- a letter from William Craft -- though it was hard to see them all. I liked it because I was able to pick up on something very subtle in the reading -- the issue of what makes a slave a slave. Clearly it was more than simply being African-American and was derived from economic and political motives.

Going off of that, the origins of slavery and how it prevailed with those with mixed race identities later on was a theme I was particularly interested. Another theme that interested me is the complexity of the intersectionality of race. There are so many variables that make it hard to categorize someone under any single identity or race, and the ways different aspect of a person interact in order to shape them and how they are viewed by others is fascinating.

At the end of this course I'm left conflicted over the progress made towards the equality of the races throughout the is country's history juxtaposed against the injustices that are still prevalent today. How are we, as a young generation charged with being a vehicle for change, supposed to combat it?