After taking the quizzes, I have found that I do not know very much about history. I thought I was always pretty good at history, but having to recall particular names was quite a challenge. What I thought was mostly interesting was the ability I had to recall races and genders. I never looked at it like this, but once I began to write them down, I was kind of disappointed in myself.
The two easiest categories for me were black and white races, mostly white. I find this to be somewhat disappointing, but at the same time, I can understand it. We have always been taught about white people. For so many years in history, other races either did not exist in the United States, or they were looked at as being slaves. That has a lot to do with how we are taught. I also think that the history books we used in high school haven’t changed a lot over the years and we did not have this large of an immigration population back then. I’m not sure if that’s the case really, but it is the only explanation I could really think of. I am disappointed that I could not come up with a lot of Asian, Latino, or middle eastern races, but I do not get to write the history books and the type of population I grew up in did not include a lot of these types of races.
When it comes to gender, however, I didn’t see much of a difference. I could usually name about as many men as I could women and I think this has a lot to do with my personal choice. I am obviously a woman, and sometimes I can be a little over the top concerning women’s rights. I am proud to be a woman and am proud of all of the women over the years that have stood up for themselves and taken over. They have always interested me and I have done a bit of research on this. I think that is why it was easier for me to name them.
In the history of the United States, I do not think that Asian, Latino, or Middle Eastern are talked about often. White and black are discussed often because white people were the main immigrants, and black people used to be slaves and then became freed and did a lot to take that role over. Asian, Latino, and middle eastern did not have as much affect on our history. There are not a ton of US leaders that are of these races, and there are not a lot of famous people besides actors that are of this race.
The only group I could see that is not really talked about is the Middle Eastern race. I hate even having to bring this topic up, but the US has a lot of hate towards this race ever since September 11th. We all know the reasoning behind it and I don’t think I need to point it out, but fact of the matter is, it’s a stereotype that we have, that will unfortunately take a lot to get rid of.
Overall, it upsets me that I could not name a person from each of the categories, but I think it has a lot to do with history and how I was brought up. Different races are not often discussed, so we do not always know much about them. It is a shame that we stereotype and do not include ever race equally, but that is how history has been for so many years, and no one could really be sure when and if it will change.
Why do you think we know more about one group than others? Does this bother you?
We know more about white males because they have been the ones in control and the ones who were written about. It definitely bothers me that we consider ourself to be a "melting pot" but hardly know anything about people who are even slightly different than us. There have been many influential people who were of a different race or gender yet they're not emphasized like white men are.
ReplyDeleteI think we know more about some groups than others because of the information that we have been exposed to. Most of the history books used in schools are focused on white males because, like Cheryl said, they were the ones in control. This does bother me but I think more and more people are beginning to see this problem and are working at exposing the hidden histories.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we know more about certain genders or ethnicities more than others because of what we are taught. If we were taught more about other ethnicities, we would would obviously know more about them and it would'nt have been such a challenge to answer all of them on that quiz! I think it slightly bothers me because I feel like we focus, or at least whoever is teaching us about history, focuses on what they specifically wish to teach us about... mostly white male I feel like is being taught because it seems the easiest, at least in my school that was the way it went. I believe we should be taught and learn more about other ethnicities so we have a wider range of understanding about others!
ReplyDeleteAs a society we do know more about one group then another. This is because the news only tells us about white males predominatly. It really does bother me because this is a diverse country and we should embrace that by including more than one group in news and politics. I hope someday we will know more about other ethnicities and not have such a narrow perspective.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything that has already been said. To bring up a separate issue, however, I would like to comment on the impact of Television. For instance, nowadays we watch more television than we do reading a book. So I think the general ignorance with regards to other "histories" also falls upon us. After all, as a kid I spent more time watching Michael Jordan playing basketball than I ever did reading a book or studying for my classes.
ReplyDeleteI think that we know more about one group over others because the people that are from this group are people that are similar to us in some way. It used to bother me a lot that people in our "group" did not want to know more about other groups but now I have accepted it.
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