Nobel winners… Isn’t it embarrassing how few Nobel winners most of us can name? These are some of the most noble, noteworthy people in the history of modern achievement and they go virtually unnoticed by we the masses.

Which brings up another topic of attention: History.
My roommate, Stephanie, and I were discussing Native American, Black American, and general World History. It was frustrating to remember some but not much of the information learned in school. I walked away from our quick overview of American History with a renewed shame at how deeply racist images have embedded themselves in our subconscious and my how limited my personal knowledge.

It started because we were discussing Spike Lee’s movies, particularly: “BAMBOOZLED”.

and the images we learned from cartoons:
, , and .
We discussed the limited, racist stereotypes that were (and to a great degree still are) promoted in film and television, and the degree to which we recognize the continuing limitations for actors of “ethnicity”. (It kills me that after winning an Oscar, Halle Berry’s roles have been Jinx and Catwoman although that is ignoring the upcoming made-for-TV “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. She is still being cast as a body, like most women in Hollywood, reduced to an object.)

This then led to a discussion of cultural knowledge or lack of, and eventually to discussing the Trail of Tears. She had not known that the Cherokee Nation had already assimilated European culture and customs, and that they wore the “right” clothes, had a written language and lived the “normal” life of the early United States but it still was not enough to keep them safe - skin tone and facial structure sells you down the river, right or wrong. I hadn’t remembered where they were from, where the trail ended, nor that the inspiration for removal was that good old American bottom line - gold.

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