Lies My Teacher Told Me

Lies My Teacher Told Me Ch 5

 This chapter, as everyone would know focuses on racism. It discusses how the African Americans were discriminated and used as slaves.

 In High School, during Christianity Week, we had to choose a class that got us to think about Christianity through something other than our regular courses. I chose a class where we were to watch a movie and write a short report on what we thought. We watched the movie Amazing Grace, a film about William Wilberforce. The movie is a bibliography of the man, who campaigned against slave trade. William Wilberforce was a member of parliament, and spent 20 years trying to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. He once nearly gave up on trying after being rejected over and over again. However, with the support of his wife and allies, he returns to the government to fight against the slave trade and succeeds in 1807, ultimately abolishing it.

 Yes, this movie was about the ‘British’ empire, not the United States. But, after watching this movie, although it is hard to believe how immoral some people were, it was unfortunately true. It frightens me to think had William Wilberforce given up, how different the world might have been today.

 I don’t know much about the slave trade, so I can’t say for sure if only African people were traded. However, from a ‘white’ society’s viewpoint, Asians would probably have been on a lower status compared to them. In other words, Japanese people could have been traded as slaves, had there not been a person who was brave enough to admit that slavery was immoral.

 It can be said for anything in the past, so there doesn’t seem to be a necessity to actually write this, but one difference, and our lives would have been so different, I can’t even begin to imagine it. When studying history, we are forced to memorize facts. However, no change would come without analyzing and critiquing for ourselves the information given to us. To ensure that history does not repeat itself, students need to learn to challenge what is being taught, not just memorize it.