This semester in Sociology 36 I have learned so much that is it hard to narrow it down, so I decided to summarize what I will take away with me this fall. The movies we watched are what really caught my attention this semester. Some people learn better visually and I’m one of those people. The movies you showed were very intriguing and in this essay I will summarize what I noted. I am no longer ignorant to the history that I wasn’t around to witness. Some things that I assumed where reassured or proven in class. The History of Ku Klux Klan was one of the videos that terrified me. I learned the horrifying events that took place in the 1920s. African Americans were murdered, raped, hung, lynched and burned all because of the color of their skin. White Americans believed in “white power” and was doing anything to keep black people inferior to them. The KKK began from a fraternity that was supposed to be just of a joking matter but turned into something more devastating. The KKK is the oldest terrorist in America. I never took an interest in where the KKK originated from until this semester. I went on to do my own research and learned that the KKK used the American flag as a symbol to represent themselves. Anyone that wasn’t a white American was e objected to discrimination by the KKK. They had no mercy and until this day there are members. Another disheartening event I learned was the massacre in Rwanda . I decided to research the events that took place in east Africa years ago. Some of the facts I found where astounding. Eight hundred thousand people were killed. The number stuck with me. Me being a Criminal justice major I thought to myself “who let this happened. From my understanding the Hutus were killing the Tutsi over land and power. The united nation had troops in Africa but that wasn’t enough to prevent the mass death that was to come. The United Nations was not able to keep the Peace and because of this so many innocent lives were taken. It was a war and people were dieing because they were a “Tutsi “I find myself trying to understand how this wasn’t prevented by the outside nations. America was said to be one of the countries that “turned thier face to those in need? “. The war stemmed from the 1960s and it was like a volcano waiting to erupt. Before this class I didn’t know anything about this war and now I’m aware. The Middle passage was a familiar topic for me. Receiving its name from the route Europeans took to get to the Americas. They went to the land of Africa captured the Africans and packed them onto ships. Many slaves did not survive the journey, because they were kept chained together. The Africans died from many diseases and viruses that spread on the ship. Traveling in filthy conditions for months made it hard for them to stay alive. They were and fed like animals, given food in which we might feed a pig today. No meats or vegetables added on to the death count because they were mild nourished. Many Africans were taken from their land and never made it to America, dyeing on the ships and being throw over. Once the slaves arrived in America, they were thrown onto the auction block and then sold to white plantation owners . In the early 1800s slavery was abolished. We then went on to lean how African Americans began to slowly get freedom and all the things to come with it At this transitioning period African Americans were confused. It was as if they didn’t know how to live in America free. Some continued to live with their “masters” and others became indentured servant where they were paid low amounts to continue doing what they did as slaves. That was a depressing time and a depressing subject to discuss. “Like the miners canary, the Indians mark the shift from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere, and our treatment of the Indians, even more that our treatment of other minorities,
