Something to Think About....

So after my long evening, day, evening, day....it's all running together. I decided to relax and so I watched a documentary called "God Grew Tired of Us". I would highly recommend that you go rent this, as it is a very moving documentary about the Lost Boys of Sudan--tens of thousands of young boys who fled their country during Civil War to escape being killed. The boys traveled without family, other than each other, for thousands of miles to Ethiopia and then later settling in a refugee camp in Kenya.

Their hope was to soon return to their home, their homeland, but after a decade, they were still could not return.

The documentary follows three young men who were given the opportunity to participate in a program that took them to the US to live, work and study.

Many of us might see this as a "dream come true" opportunity for these young men. But this documentary will open your eyes to what is important to these young men. Culture and family being first and foremost. And what they came to know as family and their culture was what they struggled to hold onto as they were moved across the country to start another chapter in their life. One that would be better--perhaps, in some ways.

This documentary certainly brings to light that there is more in life than material things. And how materialistic, we as Americans can be. And how self-absorbed and unaccepting we can be.

Too harsh? Maybe, maybe not.

I certainly know that not every American is that way, but what is the perception of Americans to people in other parts of the world?

Well, I have heard several times while being here in Cape Town, Americans referred to as "snobby" and not friendly.

A conversation was taking place a table near me on campus the other day, and all I heard was an overwhelming, "tell them to go back to America!"

In an interesting conversation with one of my classmates, who is South African, she told me I was the first American that she had met that had actually been nice to her. And she had been an exchange student studying in the states. I found that to be disturbing and sad.

So, why this impression of Americans? Well, not everyone has this impression, but quite a few do. Some say it's our government, some say it's the war. Some say it's what they see from American television and movies...not a very good representation of America, would you say?

I know on my nightly news we get the "Tinsel Town Report", we were getting regular political updates, but that had died down a bit only to be replaced by the reports of the situation on the polygamists in Texas.

So, if they think that all of America is Hollywood and politics then that could certainly give some explanation. But what about people who have met Americans and feel that we are not nice?

I'm doing my part to share information about where I'm from and what it's like with other people that I meet. And I want to explore more this idea of why we, as Americans, are seen as unfriendly.

But, I ask you to view the documentary, now that I have shared this with you, and pay close attention to what you see and what it is said.

I think we could all be a little nicer--not just to foreigners, but to each other.

Black Consciousness...Self Consciousness

I just pulled an all nighter to complete my first research paper. Handed it in yesterday—and that was a bit of a relief. One down, one to go. I don’t know how it will fare against the rigorous grading system here, but I was satisfied with what I had done.

I had taken Steve Biko’s articles “We Blacks” and “Black Souls in White Skins?” from his book “I Write What I Like” stating that it could be used as bibliotherapy for survivors of childhood sexual abuse by the identification of the victimization of race to the victimization of gender (childhood sexual abuse).

Regardless of race, when finding the common denominator of victimization, then victim to victim, one would recognize and understand the emotional trauma that results from victimization.

Bibliotherapy is the use of literature in the healing of emotional, psychological, or physical problems.

Steve Biko was an activist against apartheid during the 50’s & 60’s. His idea of Black Consciousness was that the blacks, due to the oppression of white supremacy, had lost their self esteem, their self worth, and their identity, and the Black Consciousness Movement was a call for blacks to reclaim their identity, to rebuild their “selves”, their empty shells, as Biko had described them.

Seeing as whites will never understand what it means to be black, or the racism that the blacks face due to their skin color because they can not “become” black, the emotional trauma that develops can be similar to that of a victim of abuse, regardless of color. Being able to recognize the similarities, and sharing an understanding of victimization may also lead to a cross cultural understanding.

So, that is the premise of the paper. I learned a lot from the research and process. That, regardless of what the appearances of a person, there may be emotional and psychological links that could lead to better understandings of people as a whole, of a culture. Leading us to look past the outer to see how oppression affects an individual and have a better understanding from an emotional and psychological rather than physical point of view.