The Juxtaposition of Heroes and VIllains by Ava

The Juxtaposition of Heroes and VIllains by Ava - November 2021 Scholarship Essay

One of the most important lessons I learned, as I progressed through school, was that I didn’t have the same exact experience as everyone else. As I grew up, and especially in high school, I was faced with the reality that I was privileged to have received a higher education than my peers. This was mainly because I had gone to a private elementary and middle school. Although there were downsides to my education at this school, I learned much more in comparison to my public school-educated peers. What disturbed me the most, however, was that many of my peers didn’t know about the injustices people faced throughout the centuries, even when those injustices were against my peers' own ancestors. I believe, now, that our global history, and not just the history of the United States, needs to be more firmly focused on.
I have found even in the last few months that there are some events in history, even in my own country, that we were never taught even by institutions that were considered “superior.” I sit here presently with minutes left in my Race and Diversity in America class, having just learned of Angel Island, the west-coast equivalent of Ellis Island. Up until today, I had no idea it had ever existed. Up until today, the family history of millions of people (mostly descendants of eastern-Asian immigrants) was non-existent to me. Up until today, I had only the slimmest notion of the immigration policies that subjugated these eastern-Asian families trying to get to a new life.
The existence of Angel Island, however, is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the obscurification of minority and foreign ancestry in American history classes. The Tulsa Race Massacre may be rising in fame as the years go on, but there are dozens more instances of massacres just like it occurring in southern states around the same time-- several with an even higher recorded death count than Tulsa. The enslavement of the Native population by Christpher Columbus was not even the reason we were taught about the man-- rather, it was because he discovered America (which he didn’t actually do). The existence of Malcolm X, one of the most prolific Civil Rights leaders of all time, was taught to me in the same class that told me of Angel Island-- an elective class, offered only to seniors and lasting only one semester.
It is difficult for even high-schoolers to comprehend all that has happened throughout history. It is harder, still, for state curriculums to find the resources to teach all these tragedies, events, heroes and villains to students. Through these challenges, however, I pose a question; why should we not be given the chance to at least try to comprehend? The history of our country, our people, and the people of the world should be more emphasized in United States curriculum, no matter how difficult those changes may be to impose.