Anastasia Pollock

Colleen Stevenson

Humanities

05/02/17

Final Honors Reflection

Drawing The Color Line and The Case for Reparations both guided me in my

understanding through honors this school year. These readings introduced me to our country's

past of racial hatred, narrow minded-views from white superiority, and the constant unjust

treatment of others. Both readings give insight to key background information needed to

understand why we let ourselves judge another entirely based on their skin color, and what

effects this caused in our modern day neighborhoods.

The third reading of the first semester of honors, Drawing The Color Line, established

how African American slaves became the building blocks of America. Once white slaves

contracts ended, it only seemed necessary for white superiority to find full time slaves that would

work without an expiration date to grow the countrys economy. African people, so humble to

their traditional and civilized ways of living in Africa, were often brutally shoved in ships with

people originating from separate tribes that did not share each others native tongue; this created

isolation and helplessness between slaves. African Americans were dehumanized to encourage

the amount of work labor they could complete, and discourage the chance that they could cult

together to overthrow their white masters.

The Case For Reparations intertwined with Drawing The Color Line because it dutifully

reports the effects of our misjudgement of colored people. It explains how an educated black
man who can afford a $100,000 home is forced to live in a neighborhood with homes worth only

$30,000. Years after enslavement, black people were still disregarded by many members of the

community, and were not able to fulfill the American dream by owning their own home. When

black people moved into a white neighborhood, whites took part in the act of white flight and

took with them their businesses and amenities needed to upkeep the neighborhood. These

neighborhoods became redlined; meaning they mainly populated with colored people and did not

offer promising properties. This led to the visual segregation of communities and schools, and

explains why our neighborhoods are predominantly one race.

These two readings paired together to promise me a fruitful learning experience in my

eleventh grade year of humanities honors. Our country has came across a journey of wretched

waves coated with inhumanity, to still face the effects of its cruel acts in the 20th century. 4,000

lynchings occurred on our land due to the difference of the color of a persons skin; these

readings helped me analyze and cope with these horrid effects.