Quotation:

“South Africans found yellow South Africans—they realized what we had been at such pains to tell them, that they shared a common humanity, that race, ethnicity, skin color were really irrelevant. They discovered not a Colored, a black, an indian, a white. No, they found fellow human beings. What a profound scientific discovery that blacks, Coloreds (usually people of mixed race), and Indians were in fact human beings, who had the same concerns and anxieties and aspirations. They wanted a decent home, a good job, a safe environment for their families, good schools for their children, and almost none wanted to drive the whites into the sea. They just wanted their place in the sun.” pg 7 paragraph 2

Comment: I picked this passage because it made my heart really happy. Life has been kind of dark and gloomy since the global pandemic went into place and this passage just seemed to remind me of the light and community in the world. Especially because of the racist connections that have been made with people of Chinese descent and the coronavirus, it was nice to read something about how communities, races, differences, etc. can come together in a way and create peace. People from Chinese descent are being beaten, murdered, assaulted, etc. daily because of the racist connection with the coronavirus. It makes me have some hope for this crazy, messed up world that we live in. History repeats itself, and this made me have some hope that hopefully a connection like this will happen again soon in the world and we can all be at peace. As I was reading this text, I couldn’t help but make connections to “Between the World and Me” and “Stacey Abram’s Fight For a Fair Vote.” I didn’t make specific connections, like quote to quote, but I did make the connection from text to text. 

Question: How do we help the average citizen see that we, as human beings, share the same ideals and common desires? Specifically with those from Chinese descent, who are being put in a racist light because of COVID-19? 

Post Class Reflection:

My spoken contributions today (bullets, fragments, keywords)Helping Hands Today (up to 3) – Name & Briefly Describe Contribution to Class (bullets, fragments, keywords)
~same quote as Haley and Jill
~connected quote to the racist connections with people from Chinese descent and COVID-19















~Haley: same quote, connections with immigrants and refugees
~Jill: same quote, connections with principles of justice
~Sinead: acknowledge problems in country to move forward, connections with the US

Today’s class discussion altered my thoughts about today’s text(s) in the following ways (link to your QCQ and/or to other ideas):

Today’s class discussion helped me extend my thoughts and connection making. Haley, Jill, and I all had the same quote but we all made different connections. I made the connection between people of Chinese descent and the racist connections that have been made with them and the coronavirus. Haley had taken it a different route which I really liked, she made connections with immigrants and refugees. Jill had made the connection with the principles of justice. It was very interesting to me to see how my classmates had taken the same quote as I did and had taken a different approach and made different connections. Immigrants, refugees, people of Chinese descent, blacks, white, indians, latinos, etc. are all human beings and that is the common ground. A lot of people believe that immigrants and refugees are bad people just because they are fleeing their country, when in fact they are fleeing their country because their country does not treat them like proper human beings, so why should we do the same to them? We should treat them better than their country did, because they are human beings and they deserve to be treated like it. A lot of people today are making the stereotype that coronavirus is connected to all Asians… this is so ignorant and unjust. Just because someone is Asian does not mean that they automatically have COVID-19 and they are being treated very poorly because of this. A lot of Asians are being beaten, assaulted, and even killed because of this disgusting stereotype. WE ARE ALL HUMANS! All humans deserve to be treated like a human!