In our group we talked about how it would be terribly hard to deal with the physical, verbal, and psychological abuse that people faced in the time of the movement. After a long duration of continuous abuse, it starts to get to you and you start to believe what people are calling you. The general consensus was that it also would be hard to remain nonviolent. We would have to take classes in remaining nonviolent. A few of us come from families where remaining stoic is the norm, which in one sense would help us in staying nonviolent, but on the other hand it would force us to further internalize the abuse and hardships. One person talked about how it would actually be hard to speak up if they saw abuse going on. The risk that it would bring upon them and their family would be too much and they wouldn't be comfortable.
In today's society, standing up for what we believe in doesn't necessarily risk our lives as it did in the 50's and 60's, so we feel that it's easier. With issues like immigration, marriage equality and others, we feel as if standing up for equality now is a lot easier than it was back then. A few of us do actively stand up for equal rights already, and feel as if because it's not about such radical movements, speaking up for what we believe in isn't as threatening and dangerous. We know that it would be tough and dangerous to stand up but we couldn't sit on the sidelines and watch. It took a while for people to act upon the realization that things need to change. We took that and formed the conclusion that while it may be hard to decide in the beginning, we would definitely stand up in the end.
-Baylor, Nikki, Will A, Will K, Daleth, and Kelsey
-1.24.2013
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