Violent Legacy Continued
My moment was a culmination of two. The first was the image or video taken from Muhammad Ali’s comments regarding the Vietnam War. I have played this video many times in class to highlight the conflicting viewpoints and social implications of the Vietnam War. Considering the backlash experienced by Ali followed by his most recent transformation into an iconic symbol of defiance, I and others have used this video mainly to highlight the racial component of sending African Americans to fight wars in foreign countries despite them not being treat equally in America. And as a black man, the most important moment in the video was previously when he says that no Vietcong had ever called him a nigger and that they want him to go fight for them, but they won’t fight for him, Ali, at home. But after watching the video early in the course and creating the map on unexploded ordinance in Laos, my ah hah moment came from connecting Ali’s comments regarding the people in Vietnam to the unexploded ordinance that continues to take the lives of many in Southeast Asia today. In fact, before he speaks on the racial aspects of American society, he talks about the killing of poor, brown, people in a country that has done nothing wrong towards him or any American for that fact. The picture above of the unexploded ordinances that continue to kill children living in Southeast Asia today is testimony to how the legacy of contested territory continues to dramatically influence the lives many in these countries today in a violent way
Tony Noland, 44, Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher
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Sacrifices and the Consequences of Dissent
Muhammad Ali was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1966. Ali did not believe in fighting in the war and he was willing to sacrifice everything based on those principles. “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” he said. “And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? There are only two kinds of men,” Ali continued, “those who compromise and those who take a stand.” Ali told Pacifica Radio he was “proud to say that I am the first man in the history of all America, athlete and entertainer-wise, who gave up all the white man’s money, looked the white man in the eye, and told him the truth, and stayed with his people." Ali was sentenced to 5 years in jail, fined $10,000, stripped of his title and lost his boxing license for 3 years at the height of his career. In spite of detrimental and pervasive consequences, he sacrificed his way of life to stand strong in his beliefs. The theme of “sacrifice” permeates every aspect of the history of contested territories. All the people involved, no matter what their nationality or culture, made sacrifices related to the contested territory.
June 21, 1967
Melissa Barnhouse, 38, exceptional children's teacher
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Well-Behaved Women
The humanities contributed to this moment, because my ancestors and myself are using words to make sense of the world and our place in it.... Resisting!
My moment focuses on the fact that African American women have been using their words as Political Resistance.
The humanities contributed to this moment, because my ancestors and myself are using words to make sense of the world and our place in it.... Resisting!
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Well - Behaved Women Seldom Make History
It started when the first slave arrived in America and is ongoing.
<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/teacher-advisory-council-2017-2018/">Jacqueline Stallworth</a>, 46 years old, High School English teacher in northern Virginia
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Eyes on the Mockingbird
Without <em>Eyes on the Prize</em>, I would have never seen what was happening outside of my little hometown. I knew there were different cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities surrounding Durand, but I never came in contact with them. I certainly never knew that people had to fight to be able to go to school or that fire hoses were used to deter people from going to school. It also taught me that minority does not indicate a color or even social grouping; rather it indicates a lack of political power. By Lee showing that people in the minority were being harmed by those with power, I was able to see how important it is for me to stand up for human rights. Without the humanities, I would have been blind to the world.
I grew up in a very small town in rural Wisconsin. When I looked at my classmates it was like looking in a mirror. Because of that, I never realized that there were many people who were facing hardships because of their minority status and people who were taking advantage of them. Fast forward to my sophomore year of high school. Mrs. Shaw made it her mission to open our eyes. She wanted to expose us to the realities of this world. While I questioned it at the time, she showed us the entire <em>Eyes on the Prize</em> documentary. She would allow us to watch, and then she would force us to talk about it and face the facts. We had to face the fact that people could be cruel, especially if they felt they had power over others. The curriculum then went on to <em>To Kill a Mockingbird</em>. Mrs. Shaw made sure to show us that skin color is not the only way to dictate belonging in the minority. She made us see the importance of standing up for the fact that people are people, no matter what, no matter their political power.<br /><br />Without <em>Eyes on the Prize</em>, I would have never seen what was happening outside of my little hometown. I knew there were different cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities surrounding Durand, but I never came in contact with them. I certainly never knew that people had to fight to be able to go to school or that fire hoses were used to deter people from going to school. It also taught me that minority does not indicate a color or even social grouping; rather it indicates a lack of political power. By Lee showing that people in the minority were being harmed by those with power, I was able to see how important it is for me to stand up for human rights. Without the humanities, I would have been blind to the world.
Hampton, Henry; Harper Lee
<em>Eyes on the Prize</em> and <em>To Kill a Mockingbird</em>
1995
<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/teacher-advisory-council-2017-2018/">Sarah Arnold</a>, 38, English Teacher
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Abu’s Afsanas
Oral history—one of the oldest humanities.
My Abu (‘father’ in Urdu) is my favorite storyteller ... I grew up with stories of his childhood in India and later in his life: he and his best friend, Shafi, climbing neem trees in Puna; them trying to get back at a bully, but having their elaborate plan—with one of them crouching behind the bully while the other pushed him over—completely backfire (getting beat-up for a second time!); them tapping people’s heads from atop a wall as the clueless souls walked by not knowing what just happened; traveling by boat from India to Zanzibar, where my uncle was stationed on the hill opposite from the Sultan’s palace; stories of my grandfather, a famous detective who headed up the investigation of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi; my father coming to ‘America’ in 1959 as a Fulbright scholar to study engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and witnessing the burgeoning Civil Rights movement ... These were the stories that shaped me, my worldview, and piqued my interest in studying history ... And I haven’t even gotten into my mother’s stories of growing up in Peru! (N.B.: ‘Afsanas’ are short stories in Urdu.)
Abu
Oral history—one of the oldest humanities
Over the course of our lifetimes
<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/humanities-in-class-guide-thinking-learning-in-humanities/">Omar H. Ali</a>, 46, Historian
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