Free Choice

Hi readers, welcome back to my blog. I hope you enjoyed the last few posts. In today's post, I am going to be discussing how Marc Aronson connects the different acts of prejudice in the 20th century. I will mostly be focusing on chapters 15 through 17.
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The 20th century was a time of war, discrimination, and ultimately freedom for many people. But there was one constant link throughout those decades; prejudice. Marc Aronson does a great job of connecting and entwining the different acts of discrimination in the 1900s. He starts off chapter 15 by discussing the events that led to the Holocaust. He recounts the death march that the Herero perople, a tribe in the country of Namibia, were forced to march. This event led Dr. Eugen Fischer to study the children of legal marriages between men of European background and native women. His conclusion was devastating to Africans but insightful to a German prisoner named Adolf Hitler. By choosing to include this historical event, Aronson showcased how race played a key role in Hitler's actions towards Jews and African Americans. Throughout Race, Aronson uses historical evidence to enhances his argument without sounding like a history textbook. He recounts each historical event in a new light that makes you view it differently. This allows for readers like me to easily understand what he is trying to explain and how it relates to his argument. Learning how history is connected and the common threads throughout time is an important aspect of history. Aronson uses the Holocaust as an example of feelings of prejudice at that time. He later links the feelings of discrimination seen during the Holocaust with similar feelings Americans had. 

"Too many Americans believed that if the Jews were being persecuted, they must have deserved their fate... If blacks were being killed they must have provoked whites. If Jews were being killed, they must have brought it on themselves" (210). 

America eventually got involved in World War II but only after our country came under fire from Japan. In fact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was aware of Hitler's death camps, but Americans pleaded not to go to war over Jews. Too many of our ancestors ignored the signs of harmful prejudice and instead acted on their own feelings of racism. African Americans were not the only target for white Americans during this time. Japanese Americans also faced the brunt of American resentment. Aronson showcases the similarities between Germany and America and how our thoughts and feelings were not all that different from the Nazis. Although we didn't go to the extreme that Adolf Hitler went to, our actions towards minorities were very similar. 

"While we see the image of the Nazi death camps, we are actually looking at a portrait of the world that believed in racial ranking sustained by blazing guns and discriminatory laws" (215). 

Japanese Americans heading to interment camps

 Jews in Nazi Germany heading to concentration camps

The similarities between the two images are uncanny. Sometimes, Americans forget that we forced thousands of Japanese Americans into internment camps. Some might say we did this to keep are country safe from future attacks. But why did all Japanese Americans come under suspicion when only a small percentage of Italians or German Americans were seen as suspicion? Because a majority of Americans were prejudice against all Asian people and others did not care enough. 

Aronson not only focuses on America and Europe in these chapters but also India. He highlights the connection between the American civil rights movement and that seen in India. Muhammad Gandhi is well known around the world. Many people wondered if his nonviolent approach to freedom and equality could work in the heavily segregated U.S. The struggles of Indians and African Americans were the same. They both wanted independence and equality. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi were key figures in breaking down the wall of segregation and disrcimination in our world. Aronson uses these two events and figures to highlight how similar our world was in terms of segregation based on race. 

All of these events in the 20th century defined the future of our society. We no longer segregate based on race and feelings of prejudice have been reduced to a minority. While these historical events all occurred on different continents, they were all connected by the same feelings of prejudice. Aronson uses the connections seen in these events to reinforce his argument on race. The civil rights movements of India and America paved the way for future generations of activists. The Holocaust gave way to the unjust feelings of prejudice towards Jews. These events shaped our future while tearing down the walls of the past. 


I hoped you enjoyed this latest post!