America I Am Exhibit

On Tuesday, April 12,2011, my class and I went to a National Geographic exhibit called "America I Am." It was an exhibit about African Americans in the US in history. I do not really know why the exhibit was named that, however I do have a couple ideas. My main idea is that African Americans have always been humans, they lived in the United States, but they were not Americans, at least not American citizens, and sure weren't treated like citizens either. The Founding Fathers may have written about how all men are created equal and should have certain things like a good shelter, happiness, and what they need, in important documents like the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, but African Americans certainly weren't given those things. They were slaves, in fact, many of the Founding Fathers had slaves, themselves! Cough cough hypocrites cough cough. They were later counted as 3/5 of a man when it came to voting and such, but still, they were not free, not citizens, and not Americans. It wasn't until after the civil war (which started 151 years before the day we were at the exhibit, coincidence? Nah) in which African Americans were freed by the war and the new 13th Amendment, no slavery. However they still weren't citizens and were not treated as fairly as they should have been. After a lot of fighting, African Americans finally got citizenship, from the 14th Amendment. Although at first they were still treated unfairly, that problem is pretty much gone, today. African Americans are now free, US citizens, and American, there are many famous actors, singers, other celebrities, great leaders, inventors and more, not to mention our current president. Finally, African Americans are treated the way they should have been all along, equal to everyone else. They are American. I really liked the exhibit, it was very fascinating and I learned a lot. I loved how there were chains attached to the floors and ceilings, and light effects to make the floors look covered in chains, it really made me think about how African Americans were treated like rats and dirt, locked up and not worth anything. The random noises in the background were kind of creepy, especially the sinister witch laughs. I did like the background noise of one part where the beginning of the Declaration of Independence was said. That was cool. It was very dark in the exhibit which made it even creepier, especially when you got to the Klu Klux Klan part where there was this creepy masked outfit, not to mention the red lighting. But all in all, it was a wonderful exhibit and I hope other people enjoy it as much as I did.

America We Are

Today (April 12, 2011) marked the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.  Now that we've gotten that random fact out of the way we can get to what we were trying to say.  Today we went to an exhibit at National Geographic called "America I Am".  It was about the imprint African Americans in US history and society.  The big question is... why the heck is it called "America I Am?" Now of course the two of us don't know the real answer, but we have an idea.  After the founding of the United States of America black people weren't considered citizens, a slave or African American only counted as 3/5 of a citizen.  Even though our Founding Fathers (who seemed to have their fair share of hypocrisy embedded within them) wrote about equality for all and how all men are created equal in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution they didn't strive (or really try) for this to be the case.  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both owned slaves!  African Americans were still treated horribly for almost a century when the Civil War started (150 years before today).  African Americans fought alongside white people when fighting for their freedom, but still weren't given citizenship!  After the Civil War slaves were granted freedom in the 13th Amendment.  And finally in the 14th they were given citizenship!  This isn't to say that life was easy though.  Throughout the next century black people were still treated poorly.  The civil rights movement, led by heroes like Martin Luther King Junior and Rosa Parks, helped African Americans get the stature that they hold in society today.  After years if struggle they finally were Americans, but the exhibit isn't entitled Americans We are now is it?  African Americans have given our society leaders, and celebrities, and even a president, so they really are America.  I found the exhibit fascinating and really enjoyed it.