"Us and Them": Bridging the Gap
Hello Readers and welcome to my fourth blog post. I have continued to read Race by Mark Aronson, picking up where I left off in Chapter 15.
Aronson began to describe the many horrific acts during the Holocaust that was driven by race. Not only does he discuss what was happening in Germany at the time, but he also wrote about the injustices happening in the United States and India. He first restated a prominent theme in the book: the idea of “us and them” and how different countries had their own names for the concept. At the time, this concept was used to divide the Nazis from the Jews, the Indians from the English, and white America from Asian-Americans. Aronson provides evidence that there was a large emphasis on race in these places on page 207 where he added a chart that was used to define a person’s amount of purity and a piece of anti-Semitic propaganda. He also appeals to pathos by adding his own insight on the idea of extermination camps. When explaining Hitler's plan, he calls it,
This description is meant to bring many people’s feelings about the Holocaust to the surface. Most know about the atrocities that occurred in the camps, but do not always try to empathize with the suffering that millions of people endured, as it is emotionally draining. However, it is important for us to recognize the insanity behind Hitler’s ideas and the immense pain that he caused, for it is the only way people as a whole can prevent ourselves from repeating these mistakes.
Racism After the Holocaust
Another important subject that Aronson touches is how Gandhi's non-violent actions inspired the civil rights era in America. Although the fight for civil rights in the United States was not new in the 1960s, this era was marked as the turning point in the war against segregation. Aronson adds an example of how important the issue became, as he describes a day in 1965 when one of the most important movie viewings of the decade (which was for a film about Nazis put on trial for their war crimes) was interrupted by a news report that police were brutally retaliating against civil rights protestors in Alabama. After this occurred, many African Americans turned to the words of Gandhi to find guidance in the method of non-violent protest. At the time, Gandhi was leading the fight for India’s independence. One of the most important ideas that he preached was self-respect. Self-respect was essential for bridging the gap between “untouchables” and “inferiors” in the Indian caste system. Gandhi believed that the “untouchables” who were born into the top of the caste should be called “Children of God”. His intention was to make the point that the high-ranked are just the same as everyone else because many believe that everyone is a child of God. This revolutionary idea bled into the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s. Aronson emphasizes this as he wraps up the chapter with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr who will soon be one of the most important figures in black history.
Thank you for reading this week’s post!
Aronson began to describe the many horrific acts during the Holocaust that was driven by race. Not only does he discuss what was happening in Germany at the time, but he also wrote about the injustices happening in the United States and India. He first restated a prominent theme in the book: the idea of “us and them” and how different countries had their own names for the concept. At the time, this concept was used to divide the Nazis from the Jews, the Indians from the English, and white America from Asian-Americans. Aronson provides evidence that there was a large emphasis on race in these places on page 207 where he added a chart that was used to define a person’s amount of purity and a piece of anti-Semitic propaganda. He also appeals to pathos by adding his own insight on the idea of extermination camps. When explaining Hitler's plan, he calls it,
“The End. Hitler plunged past sanity, past humanity, past reason, and built death camps that were hell on Earth,” (Page 208).
This description is meant to bring many people’s feelings about the Holocaust to the surface. Most know about the atrocities that occurred in the camps, but do not always try to empathize with the suffering that millions of people endured, as it is emotionally draining. However, it is important for us to recognize the insanity behind Hitler’s ideas and the immense pain that he caused, for it is the only way people as a whole can prevent ourselves from repeating these mistakes.
Racism After the Holocaust
Another important subject that Aronson touches is how Gandhi's non-violent actions inspired the civil rights era in America. Although the fight for civil rights in the United States was not new in the 1960s, this era was marked as the turning point in the war against segregation. Aronson adds an example of how important the issue became, as he describes a day in 1965 when one of the most important movie viewings of the decade (which was for a film about Nazis put on trial for their war crimes) was interrupted by a news report that police were brutally retaliating against civil rights protestors in Alabama. After this occurred, many African Americans turned to the words of Gandhi to find guidance in the method of non-violent protest. At the time, Gandhi was leading the fight for India’s independence. One of the most important ideas that he preached was self-respect. Self-respect was essential for bridging the gap between “untouchables” and “inferiors” in the Indian caste system. Gandhi believed that the “untouchables” who were born into the top of the caste should be called “Children of God”. His intention was to make the point that the high-ranked are just the same as everyone else because many believe that everyone is a child of God. This revolutionary idea bled into the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s. Aronson emphasizes this as he wraps up the chapter with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr who will soon be one of the most important figures in black history.
Thank you for reading this week’s post!
Brianna,
ReplyDeleteI like the connections you made between the Civil Rights Era in the United States with Gandhi's struggle for independence. It's kind of weird to think that Gandhi was fighting for Indian independence at the same time MLK, J. was fighting for freedom in the U.S. I don't know about you, but I always think of Gandhi as being from a different time period for some reason. It was also cool to read two different blogs about the same book and see the different things people got from the same section: you wrote more about Gandhi, and Charlie wrote more about Hitler.
I look forward to reading your last post!
-Porter
P.S. Did you know that MLK, J. and Anne Frank were born in the same year?
Hey Brianna,
ReplyDeleteIn the first paragraph of this post, you mentioned how people kept actual charts to determine a person's "purity". When I read this I remembered how we learned in History that this had been a practice for centuries before this in various countries, such as the Spanish Colonies, they had kept charts to keep track of people's heritage. I hadn't realized the practice had extended so far into the twentieth century. I guess humans keep their archaic practices for far longer than we realize.
Good discussion of the section, Brianna. I remember finding Aronson's tracking of an "us versus them" mentality particularly effective when I read the book, as it seems so obvious but isn't often how we think about race.
ReplyDelete