It is always interesting how relevant literature, at times, manages to be decades, and even centuries past its publishing. While there is always going to be content, opinions and writing styles that are drastically different from that of the modern day, many of the themes and arguments can maintain a surprising similarity to issues that still plague many of us today. Personally, I have found this to be true time and time again, but I am always a little bit shocked that text from over a hundred years ago can discuss issues and controversies that I myself still deal with and experience in my own life. This has certainly been true of many of the works we have read so far in class, especially since they were all written over a century ago. For instance, the issue of racism continues to be a major issue in America, and the World, just as it was in many of our class readings, and it is something I have found to be a very important issue to my own life in the modern day due to experiences in my career. In a sense, these writings enhance struggles I face directly at work when it comes to conflicts between people over what should seemingly be superficial issues.
I spend my working days attempting to solve a litany of problems and associated questions facing national defense and policy makers, an oversimplified description of a sensitive job, but one of my key functions is to provide cultural expertise and insight that may affect or change certain decisions. Through this job, and associated schooling and research, I have learned quite emphatically that the issue of race/ethnicity is something that is certainly not isolated to America and is often much more severe around the World in comparison. Much like America’s Civil War, conflicts regarding racial issues, and much more directly so than the American Civil War, continue to plague the World in the modern day.
Sadly, trying to figure out who can work with whom in a country or conflict area versus who will kill whom simply based on ethnic lines is an all too often struggle I face in my 21st century job, at least from the relatively detached eyes of an American. This has provided me a view into just how far America has come on racial issues in a relatively short time period that I otherwise would not have without my career and experience, and our readings from class have provided a look back into the immense change, but also continued struggles regarding the issue of racism an equality in the World. To me, W.E.B. Dubois’s argument of immediate suffrage and equality is something that many still argue for and should seemingly by the forgone conclusion/goal for humans of all races. Unfortunately, much like in his own time, W.E.B. Dubois’s argument does not necessarily garner the attention or action it deserves. Instead, I think Huckleberry Finn provides a better example of how many view racial issues. Yes, Jim is one of the most noble and caring characters in the book which prompts the reader to empathize with him. Yet, it is also a story based around feeling rather than action in terms of racism. People can feel bad or sympathetic which might make themselves feel better by giving some sort of “care” to the issue, but there is still no action and thus no quick change as called upon by past and present activists such as Dubois. To me, this is where Huck Finn is an oddly good representation of why, in some part, the issue of racism continues to loom so large over the World.
While America continues to struggle with institutionalized racism, and some cases of more outright racist ideals, it has overall made much progress for a country that is perhaps more ethnically diverse than any other. I work a lot with the Asian Pacific region, and particularly Korea, and the levels of racism within the often ethnically homogeneous cultures of Asia makes achieving true equality a much larger struggle than somewhere such as America where it has been at the forefront of literary, political and ideological arguments for well over a century due to its ethnic diversity as evident by our class readings alone. However, it irritates me more and more that this is an issue that continues to divide major portions of the World. While it is always hard to look into another nation’s way of life, culture and condition and judge it as an outsider, my experiences at work along with readings such as those in class make me realize that this has been an issue for centuries and makes me question when, if ever, it can truly be solved on a Global scale when so many places have not even touched the progress America has made over the past century or so, especially when somewhere as diverse as the U.S. continues to deal with racism an inequality on a daily basis.