King Still King?

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was obviously one of the most influential men in African-American history, and he was a key player in abolishing segregation and other unjust laws. Now, almost 50 years later, how do Dr. King's actions still make an impact on society? Ending segregation and discrimination was the biggest advancement in racial equality in the U.S. for 100 years, since the Civil War. And in my opinion, nothing has surpassed that yet. The impact that he had on racial equality is so great that the only thing that could ever really pass it is complete equality. Whether that will ever really happen is another story, even though there have been big improvements. Some people might think, "What about Barack Obama becoming president? Isn't that really big too?" And it definitely is, but I don't know that that in itself has had such a great effect on the African-American people. I think what it really shows is that Americans as a whole have become much more racially tolerant in the last half century. For those who are still racist, it'll take more than an African-American president to change their old-fashioned, but deeply ingrained views. Maybe as the generations continue, progress will continue too, just like it already has been. Hopefully one day all Americans will be able to look back on discrimination and inequality and realize how wrong it really was.

What is an American: Part 1

     In American Lit this week we've read four pieces for our new unit, What is an American? The authors were Edwidge Danicat, a Haitian-American, Lorraine Hanberry, an African-American, Walt Whitman, and Chief Seattle, a Native American. I believe these selections were chosen to demonstrate the diversity of America, and to broaden the definition of American. Only one of them was white; one wasn't even born in the U.S. This sparks the question to be answered later in our papers: What do these different people share to be  brought into one group classified as American. Many Americans today don't think of the minority when defining an American. They think of themselves as the "real" Americans, and think America belongs to them, not to someone born  in another country. Another question brought up by this is what is the definition of America? To use Haiti as an example, it's not the U.S. but it is part of "the Americas". It was founded upon the same values as the U.S. Being the  first nation to abolish slavery, Haitians won independence from the French in 1804. Most other countries in the New World went through a similar process: fighting to send their colonizers back home and gain their freedom. Though the United States may have been one of the first to do it, this is one of the main ideals our nation is based on, and one of the defining ideals of an American.