Professor Sonja Thomas’ presentation was really powerful to listen to and it really opened my eyes to the issues that Native American people deal with throughout the United States. The most impactful part of this talk for me was that I truly had not heard a lot about many of these issues beforehand and I think that is shocking and alarming for multiple reasons. I think that shows that people are really isolated from the struggles of Native Americans and it is not regularly brought up in educational settings or discussions throughout primary school. I think this is alarming in itself but it is also a product of our new modern world and our ability to completely shut out many issues surrounding us and just go about our jobs without considering the impact of major political figures saying these racist and hateful things.<\/p>\n
I think in general social media and technology are allowing these hateful things to be said more regularly in our contemporary age. The ability to publicly say or post anything online anonymously through the internet is something that allows people to be more hateful than they might ever be in person. This ability is making people more confident in their ability to do this and get away with it and makes them eventually more likely to say hateful things to people in person.<\/p>\n
This of course directly relates to our current president and his language and usage of social media. He utilizes platforms such as Twitter to slander people regularly and has made multiple racist comments publicly on social media and in press conferences.<\/p>\n
This was only part of the incredibly stimulating presentation from Professor Thomas, the part that was entirely new information to me and was really saddening to learn more about was the physical and sexual abuse that Native Americans experienced with Catholic schools on the reservation. This was devastating to learn more about especially as I consider also learning that Native Americans have a higher suicide rate. I will never be able to understand the hateful acts people are capable of committing and it is shocking and terrible that these things continue to occur in our modern age.<\/p>\n
I think that for me this made me especially critical of the Catholic church because I personally have never been religious and most of my close family is also not religious. My mom was raised Catholic and most of her side of my family is Catholic but I was never very close with them as I was raised in Maine and they lived in Pennsylvania. In general though the few Catholic services I have been to have been very pleasant and have left me feeling good. However, when I hear about injustices such as those presented in this talk, and others such as those displayed in the movie Spotlight, it becomes questionable to me why this church has been able to get away with so many horrid social injustices for so long and yet maintain influence over so many individuals. Perhaps this is a stretch and a bit too critical, but this is definitely where my mind is drawn after learning so much from Professor Sonja Thomas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Professor Sonja Thomas’ presentation was really powerful to listen to and it really opened my eyes to the issues that Native American people deal with throughout the United States. The most impactful part of this talk for me was that I truly had not heard a lot about many of these issues beforehand and I … <\/p>\n