Day of Presence

[zippongu1]

I attended the evening session during the Day of Presence to hear the author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me" talk about the nadir of race relations in the U.S. The most significant idea that he brought up was that we (as a country) are more willing to discuss injustice in the past if we are sure that everyone is getting justice in the present. His

Comments

[savsar]

I also went to the evening session for Day of Presence, I agree with you about how this country as a whole deals with our mistakes. I have found myself in the past being disgusted at our country for certain events and I just had to get over it and except it. I think that it is important to understand your countries injustices that have happened in the past and to be up to date about what is going on now. When studying abroad it is almost more important to know what is going on in that particular country so that you can more easily converse with people of that country.

[ciancettac]

It can be very easy to adopt the Anti-American perspective, especially when you don't agree with current politics. Something that Peter Bohmer said (Evergreen faculty) that helped me was basically that we can choose to identify ourselves as part of the America that we are proud of - Women's sufferage fr the right to vote; labor movements; ML King peaceful demonstrations, etc. By informing ourselves about this "People's History" (see book of same name by Howard Zinn) I've found it easier to claim being an American.-C