Evil Claiming to be Heroes

During my social justice class my eyes are being opened more and more every week. America teaches history as a time full of adventure and heroes, when that's not the truth at all. I will give two examples that prove this statement. After reading a few chapters from a book by Howard Zenn in my class, I was astonished and appalled to realize how our beloved Christopher Columbus was an imperialist in the most extreme way. He came to the America's, and forced his countries views down their throats with no regard for common decency or respect. He wasn't there to discover new land and cultures; he was there to claim the land for himself. If anything got in his way he would murder the natives, or do whatever was necessary to get what he desired.  After reading the true story, I am repulsed to say that I actually respected the man and celebrated his holiday.

Another example of this kind of tyranny was the story of the Texas Rangers, and the conflicts on the Mexican American borders.  While taking my Mexican American history class a few semesters ago, my eyes were opened once again.  We think of the Texas Rangers as protectors of America and the crusaders of the west, but in reality they were rapists, murderers, and racist cowards just as Columbus was.  They weren’t out looking for real problems on the border; they were out looking for their idea of fun.  During this time period, regardless if the Hispanic man or woman was American or not, would be in danger of being subjected to murder, wives or women being raped, their children kidnapped or killed, or being sent back to Mexico even if they were citizens of the United States.  I looked up to the Texas Rangers growing up.  I thought of them as the cowboy protectors of America, and it made me honored to be a citizen of a country that had heroes like this.  I mean for God sake we have a baseball team named after them, a holiday after Christopher Columbus, and my question is how society has been oblivious to all these horrifying evidences from the past. 

Has America really come a long way from these social injustices of the past or have we just sugar coated them?  Even though officers aren’t out raping, murdering, and enslaving the public (so we think), are societies social injustices any better today?  What exactly is the definition of social justice?  The dictionaries definition of social justice is, “Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating an egalitarian society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being.”  A guest speaker from my class named Dr. Agular asked us will each individual ever be fully equal to one another?   His answer was no, because biologically we can never be equal.  For example a man could never be equal to a woman, because the simple fact that man can’t give birth to a baby.  That is the most simplistic answer to the question, but I believe there will never be equality in America.  The United States is too worried about differences, and who are the dominates and who are the subordinates in society.  Yes I believe America has come a long way since the Columbus days or the Texas Rangers, but after watching the movie “Crash”, we still have a long way to go before I am content with society in America.  Until America can look past one another’s differences, until we can look past the color of our skin, until we can spread wealth equally throughout society, and until society can look at individuals as equal human beings and not dollar signs, we will never be a country of social justice and equality. 

Here is a scene from the movie “crash”, showing just how far we have come as a society of social justice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAmUPCbhkwo&feature=related