Slavery in Selma

Today we arrived in Selma. Firstly, we visit Selma with Joanne Bland.

After visiting Baptist Church and Tabernacle Baptist Church, we went to Voting Right Museum, and Slavery and Civil War Museum. In the Slavery and Civil War Museum, we had a chance to experience what the slaves suffered in the old time. The big and strong men are treated more badly than the others are because the white want the black race to disappear or prevent the treatment from the black race. The slaves were crowed in the ships, which were heading to North America from Africa, like sardines in a can. Every day, what they had for food was just a handful of bread. And they could not go outside of the bottom of the ship. The diseases were easily spread around. Many of them were sick to dead. Also, many others were desperate and jumped into the sea, where was full of sharks. After they successfully arrived in America, they were treated even worse. The white people hanged them arbitrarily and the black people could not fight back. And the tour guide told us that they didn’t have their spirit correctly expressed.

In my opinion, I connect the hard time the African-American suffered with the first group of Chinese people to go to San Francisco did. We can see a lot of China Towns in main cities in America. And Chinese people earn their dignity and respect. To the best of my knowledge, the Chinese people can achieve this successfulness because of their great effort to develop their economy system. Only when one people have strong economic support, can this people earn their dignity and respect from the other people. The African-Americans are still under developed in nowadays, in this poor economic circumstance, they can hardly earn their respect from the white, regardless that they think they should do.

I cannot deny that the hard time the African-Americans suffered worth our sympathy. The white people really did something bad to them and the history should not be ignored. We should face the history bravely and correctly and pass them down to the next generation; however, we should try to find the reason not only on the enemy, but also on the black people themselves. Why they chose to stay in America instead going back to Africa while they complaining about the circumstance in America. Why they care the policy more than the development of their economy? I believe that these “whys” can help they improve their social circumstance.