group talk: warriors dont cry

group talk: warriors dont cry
We managed to cover many things during the group discussion we had last Friday.
I have a lot to say about the discussion my group had about our book, Warriors Don't Cry written by Melba Pattillo Beals. Even though I am reading a shorten version of the original, I still got the major events which made it possible for me to participate. Even though I did not answer as many questions as some of the other members in my group, I asked most of the questions. However, due to the limited amount of time we had, I was not able to ask all the questions I had in mind. Some of the questions I would have brought up include

• Does such severe inequality still exist in today's society?
• Do you believe that what Melba is doing is worth the risk?
• How does the title relate to the book?
• What caused the severe racism to last for such a long time?

I got several of my questions like “why is there such strong racism in Little Rock (Melba’s hometown) and none in Ohio?” answered. My group responded with some thoughtful answers. They told me that most of it is caused by history and decisions of the past. Arkansas, where most of the severe racism Melba experienced, was once a state open to slavery while Ohio was against. Due to Arkansas’s support of slavery, racism and mistreatment from white people to African Americans was common and difficult to avoid. Ohio was a free state that was against slavery therefore racism on African Americans was not as strong. But their answers were not at the mark since their thoughts could have been proven wrong.

If we had some additional time, I might have brought up the question that asked about our modern day society and I would have my own answer to it. We still have racism through our jokes (insults to be more accurate), and excluding/judging others based on their race and religion. Jokes are jokes when they are not used to insult others. But when it goes too far, it can become a nasty insult. But today we have our “racism” not based on skin color but by age. Our president wants to legalize murder to whoever is within a certain age, so right now we have not gone so far at all.