Writing Log 4A

Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide

The main part of this essay is for Smith to reveal her concern for violence against Native women and women of color. Smith is considered to be a leading expert on this topic and is expressing her voice on this horrific topic. I feel as though, Andrea Smith wanted her audience to know and learn that racism is a serious topic, and it affects people differently each time. Over time, one would think that racism has decreased and people don’t discriminate against other people based on their race, but it hasn’t. People still to this day, think of the natives as dirty and not equal to us (us being white human beings). This outlook on life is unhealthy for our community and world as a whole. Throughout her essay, Smith is telling her audience the history of rape throughout the U.S. history. The meaning of this is so we know what used to go on in our world; we now know what the natives had to go through each day. The difficulties, in which they had to go through, shaped who they are as people today. When going through rape and having to deal with horrific events, it can change how people act around other people. Although Smith didn’t use a lot of evidence from what happens now in the U.S., this topic is still a very serious subject.

The first hotspot I reacted to was, “…, women of color do not just face quantitatively more issues when they suffer violence (e.g., less media attention, language barriers, lack of support in the judicial system) but their experience is qualitatively different from that of white women”, (110). I don’t agree with what is being said because it was hard for me to accept. It is sad, that in our world native people are being looked down upon. The fact that people use sexual violence as a tool for genocide is ridiculous because they feel that the native body is violable at all times, which means that their land is violable at all times too. When native people have to deal with people constantly touching them, or telling them that they do not have the rights to their body, they grow self-hatred towards themselves. When their body isn’t being respected by other people, they feel as though they shouldn’t respect their own body either.

The second hotspot that I came across was, “Because Indian bodies are “dirty”, they are considered sexually violable and “rapable”, and the rape of bodies that are considered inherently impure or dirty simply does not count”, (111). This hotspot for me is sad because they are saying that Indian bodies are dirty and are allowed to be raped. The fact that they compare the Indian race and their bodies to prostitutes is disgusting to me because, they shouldn’t be looked at like that from that angle. Then it goes on to say that prostitutes are rarely believed when they say they are raped because society believes the bodies of sex workers, violable at all times. The fact that society views anyone’s body to be violable at all times is outrageous because no one should have to suffer from this domestic and racial violence. When someone it raped, it changes their life forever. If I were to be raped, I would be traumatized for the rest of my life. We see on TV, women being raped and they never trust men again, or they have a hard time warming up to people. Everyone should have control over their own body, and Indian bodies shouldn’t be viewed as violable, no one’s body should be.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King, Jr., was involved in the civil rights movements in the United States. This civil rights movement began in 1955, when he led a boycott of segregated buses into Montgomery, Alabama. From the 1950s, up until he was shot and killed, King organized many boycotts and protests against the segregation of colored people. Martin Luther King Jr., was arrested, jailed, stoned, stabbed, and beaten, but through all of his struggles, he was able to end the segregation in the United States. The main part of this essay was to teach his audience, what colored people went through. In our past, the white folks weren’t always open to colored people, or people who were different than what they were. People shouldn’t discriminate against those who are different because everyone is living in the same world. When living in the same world, people should be treated the same and held to the same standards. All of the essays we have read so far in class have dealt with hate crimes, ancestral rituals, discrimination against gender and race. It is time that we learn from our ancestors past and no longer discriminate against anyone, no matter how different they really are.

When reading this essay, I came across my first hotspot, “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here”, (71). Martin Luther King Jr., is telling the clergymen that he was invited to Birmingham and is not an “outsider coming in” to their town. There is a reason that he is in Birmingham because he is like Paul, he feels as though he is compelled to carry out the freedom of his home town. He goes on to say that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere. Although King isn’t from Birmingham, he was willing to spread his knowledge and wisdom, to help end the suffrage. Martin Luther King Jr., makes a strong argument where he says, “Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country”, (71). This is a valid argument because everyone should be treated equal, no matter what color or race they are. King spread his wisdom in hope of ending the hate crimes and protest because he believed that everyone should have the same equal opportunities.

My second hotspot I came across was, “The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws”, (75). Everyone was saying that the colored people were breaking laws because they were going against the social norm. There are just laws and unjust laws. When dealing with laws, there should only be one type of law and it should have to be obeyed by everyone, no matter race or color. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. A law is something that was man made and is meant to be followed. Any law that goes against a person’s personality or rights is an unjust law. When King came to Birmingham he had hoped that he would have the white churches on his side because he too was a religious leader, his hopes were crushed. When writing this letter from the Birmingham jail, King was hoping for peace and brotherhood. Martin Luther King Jr., was fighting for what was right and for the religious rights to be equal.