Racism
Systemic Racism cannot be ended without a major socio-economic reform in this country. At the Sametime, we cannot ruin our present or the future by trying the correct the mistakes which were done in the past. But we can learn from what happened in the past by studying true history and making sure that the atrocities committed to people of color or other ethnicities won’t be repeated in the present or in the future. Instead, if you are trying to destroy the statues and monuments from the past, it will destroy the very fabric this country is built on and make people fearful and push them towards the dark ideologies. Like Trumpism which offers the wonderful past which includes racial superiority.
Nowadays left-wing extremes are even removing the statues of some of our founding Fathers from public places and trying to include concepts like “Critical race theory” in School Curriculum. Those actions are stupid and a subject like Critical race theory in the school curriculum scares white people that it will Demonize a race from their kid’s viewpoint and there is truth to it. Like I mentioned earlier, Critical race theory may be a good learning subject for educators to understand that segregation still exists in our school system. But it’s of no value for a student in a school. Instead of teaching Critical Race theory, why can’t we teach our students true American history and world history without scaring anyone. That way students can then understand that when they sing “Land of the free and home of the Brave”, there was a time in our history when these words were not meant for the millions of enslaved African Americans and other people of color. They were not even considered as Humans to be free in this country. As part of history lessons, When we teach the kids all the good things the Founding Fathers did for this country, we should also teach the hardships the enslaved people had to go through just to survive during that time. The mistakes which were made when it comes to racial equalities and the importance of what Abraham Lincoln and later Dr. Martin Luther King had to do to correct those and their sacrifices. We need to teach our kids the price we paid for correcting those mistakes in the form of the Civil war and Civil rights movements. We can do this without demonizing anyone or removing National Monuments and Statues. Learning American Civil War will tell us the thousands of lives lost in that War to bring Social justice to all Americans and this is significant in a Trump Era when his people are talking about a second Civil War to go back to our Dark Past. Every country, every civilization in this world has a dark past when it comes to social injustices, inequalities, and atrocities committed against minorities. When we learn World history, we need to learn who the real Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler were and who Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were. This is why Learning History is very crucial Nowadays, to learn about the heroic fights against oppression and the prices we paid. But learning history should not be about hating each other based on what was done in the past and try to correct it. It’s foolish because it’s the past and cannot be corrected. But we can make sure that it won’t happen in the present-day nor in the future.
For example, Winston Churchill who is revered as a Hero in the Western world was a real Villain for Indians.. For the British, Winston Churchill is a hero who saved his people from the German occupation. For Indians, Winston Churchill is someone who called Indians “beastly people with a beastly religion “and caused the death of millions of People in the Indian subcontinent like the Notorious Bengal Famine of 1943. We can talk about these without hating each other because Winston Churchill does not exist now, he is part of history, The Past. Most of the British many not even know the other side of Churchill and It won’t change their views on Churchill either because for them everything Churchill did helped Britain. So Churchill will be a hero for the British and a villain for Indians. But in todays world, we all coexist with no grudge towards each other. AstraZeneca vaccine to fight Covid is the best example. UK invented it, India Manufactured it and distributed it around the world.
by Hari Ramachandran