History Repeats

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This specific assignment I wrote my sophomore year of high school, I was freshly 14. The year was 2020, what a year that was.

The year, for me personally, was an eye-opening experience, one into the human psyche. The people I mingled with on the daily were transformed in my eyes with their words and actions following the events of that year, I could not look at some of you the same.

February through May of that year aren't ones that I can clearly recall, with solidified memories and moments that made them significant.

I think the whole world can agree that one thing in particular captured the minds of us all for those couple months, not allowing for any moment to remain memorable, only fear.

Fear was the memory for those months, the one notion we could all uniformly understand, the only thing that made sense.

Those who acted as though their "bodies of steel" could overpower the implications of science and were better than the millions who passed from the virus ravaging the homes worldwide seemed to have been condensed into my community, the ignorance surrounding the severity of the situation was almost scarier than the virus itself.

It took a natural disaster to expose the selfish minds of the vast majority of my community members, and that disturbed me, truly it did.

Then, without warning, the unthinkable occurred.

A murder in Minneapolis, one executed by a police officer, one that was without a doubt racially motivated.

The murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020 flipped the world upside down. Many things spiraled through my freshly teenage brain. George Floyd was not some martyr, who died for a cause. To show the world the severity of racism in America's present. He was murdered, he wasn't planning on dying, he didn't want to. This realization put a nausea inducing pit in my stomach. My generation had been taught that racism and its cruelties were something of the past, something swept and cleaned from our countries slate the moment the ball dropped in the year 2000. Something of the 20th century, not to be spoken of again.

As months passed, May through August was a summer of anything but relaxation. A summer of masks, a whole lot of hand sanitizer, cotton swabs up the goddamn nose, and Instagram story reposts from 14-year-old me, who had no idea how the hell I was the supposed to help it all. A notion such as racism was so huge, a vaccine or a mask couldn't stop the spread, only education on the topic, it seemed. Which appeared impossible to get through the dense minds of the enemy.

Forward to February of the following year, the school year had been hellish so far. The masks, the online school debacle, the vague nature of the year itself. And on top of it all, I felt like I was surrounded by strangers.

My English teacher, Dr. Bradshaw, seemed to just always understand. She saw the stress, she noticed our sorry attempts to keep it together, and the confusion surrounding the subject of the past couple months. She formulated an assignment to assure the ideas of some and educate the minds of others.

A compare and contrast essay on the works of three humanitarians: Elie Weisel, Martin Luther King Jr., and Amanda Gorman.

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Compare and Contrast Essay

Since the beginning of time, the trifles of human judgment and its root in bias have resulted in societal turbulence. Whether it be racial injustices, discrimination towards religions, misogyny, etc., society has always seemed to find a way to disfavor groups of people. It's those who explicitly project their emotions on these topics who gain the spotlight in history, whether it be for infamy or fame. The three humanitarians discussed today are examples of the ever-continuing fight of minorities for equity, and for the demolition of human bias.

Amanda Gorman is a twenty-two-year-old writing virtuoso who shines light on her name with her powerful poetry. As a young, female, person of color she is subject to incredible amounts of bias solely for living. Constantly beaten down by society and its stigmatism against women and their abilities, she uses her being a minority to her advantage, and uses her experience as one to project her voice. A voice of change. In her poem she states, “our people diverse and battered… will emerge battered and beautiful” (Gormon). A community of oppression, oppressed for unjust reasons band together to contest the notions now turned transparent to their evils. The power of hope is a mighty one, and when a community, a nation, powered by hope moves in the direction of light it will exit the battle abused, but ultimately in victory. “If we merge with mercy and might… then love becomes our legacy” (Gormon). With her words, she pushes a nation onto the right side of history, that being one fueled by compassion, and hope. That of a nation guided by its past victims.

Martin Luther King Junior was an African American minister and civil rights activist. He saw a nation separated, separated by means of prejudice, and fought peacefully for change. For the sake of the P.O.C. in the U.S., and for the sake of everyone moving forward. During one of his peaceful protests, he was wrongfully arrested and while in jail he wrote a letter from his cell in Birmingham. His letter is laced in frustration, frustrated that this is even a fight to be fought, "freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor” (MLK). He is yet another example of the oppressed leading the fight, and he encouraged others to do the same, regardless of the strenuous work it will require, “Abused and scorned… our destiny is tied with America’s destiny” (MLK). Martin Luther King describes how the victims of bias in America lead history, because history is made by people of passion, and it is passion that ushers them down the path, battered, but ultimately forming their narrative.

Elie Weisel is a survivor of one the most viciously evil documented periods of history. The main focus of discrimination was towards the Jewish people, where they were essentially stripped of their rights, humanity, and their lives. Survival was a blessing, but at the cost of having to live with the memories. However, Weisel uses his memories as the victim to fuel him rather than destroy him. When entering the new millennium, he made a speech about his hope, and fear for what was to come. He states how “indifference after all is much more dangerous than anger” (Weisel). Ignoring victims is even worse than spitting them. With spite comes consequence, and change, but with ignorance comes restriction for growth. Mr. Weisel promotes his fear of indifference taking over, from his own experience of it leading to his prolonged suffering. He uses his experience, and his pain, to teach and promote better ways, for a better millennium. “And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.” (Weisel). Just like Gorman and King, he is influenced by hope. While fear lingers, the hope for better is what keeps history moving, and alive. The hope for one day, a brighter society based in equality.

While projections of ideas and notion are what make historical figures, it’s what they base themselves upon that makes their legacy. Amanda Gorman, Martin Luther King, and Elie Wiesel base themselves around hope. While they all have hope for inherently different conceptions, rooted in the same theme: that of the evil that is human hatred, and bias, and the ever-continuing endeavor towards the light, fueled by the memories of past experiences and the desire for better.

Works Cited

AmericanRhetoric.com. “Elie Wiesel - the Perils of Indifference.” YouTube, 17 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpXmRiGst4k.

Newshour, PBS. “WATCH: Amanda Gorman Reads Inauguration Poem, ‘the Hill We Climb’ - YouTube.” Www.youtube.com, 20 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ055ilIiN4.

thepostarchive. “Martin Luther King, Jr. Reads His ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail.’” YouTube, 18 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di05SvJ8utI. Accessed 25 Feb. 2021.

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