From My Perspective: Repeating History (Part Two)

Last week’s column was on history repeating itself as it pertains to World War II and how I see similarities and correlations between events that happened in the 1930’s and 1940’s and today.

I appreciate those of you who reached out to me about the column, whether it was something you liked and agreed with, didn’t like or disagreed with, or just felt the topic and information was thought provoking and made you consider things from a different angle.

For this second segment I’d like to go back to the 1950’s and 60’s when segregation in the United States was a hot topic, and discuss how I believe it parallels some of the current situations today.

Technically, the act of segregation began long before then, as it had to do with slavery and the abolishment of slavery in 1862, but for purposes this column I’m more interested in the events that occurred in our history during the later dates.

By definition, the word segregation means the action or state of setting someone or something apart from others, or the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community or establishment.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, this had to do mostly with the black population of society. They were hugely affected by segregation. It affected the jobs they could hold, the places they could live, where they could attend school, go out to eat, what libraries and services they could go use, even the water fountains they could drink from and how they were permitted to travel on public transportation.

In 1954, the Supreme Court struck down segregation in schools during the suit of Brown V. Board of Education. They ruled it unconstitutional and the desegregation of school, while very slow in happening, began.

In Alabama in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. This one brave act got her arrested, but if it wasn’t for that act, activists like Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, there may not have been a Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in 1964.

Under the Civil Rights Act, blacks and minorities could not be denied service, or entry to places such as courthouses, parks, restaurants, theaters and hotels based on the color of their skin.

Today’s version of segregation includes the denying of entrance to restaurants, events, and more based on the ownership and presentation of a vaccine card. There is also a rise in reverse segregation by establishments in California and other states, where signs say “unvaccinated only may enter.”

In my opinion, we just slipped back 70 years in history and it makes me wonder if there will be another Civil Rights Act invoked, or a change to the 14th amendment to not only include race, religion, gender and national origin, but also vaccination status. Or will we just go by and let this history repeat itself too? It makes me wonder who the Rosa Parks of this generation will be, the person who will say, ‘enough is enough.’ Will it be you? Will it be me? Isn’t it scary to think we need another Rosa Parks at all?

The Equal Opportunity Commission and the Equal Opportunity Act (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act) barred discrimination by employers and labor unions based on race, religious, gender and national origins. Additionally, that act forbade the use of federal funds for any discriminatory program. Hmm, if I think about it, doesn’t the government fund COVID tests, COVID vaccines, and the like using federal funds? By doing so and not allowing unvaccinated or vaccinated individuals entry to events, limiting their travels and such, go directly against that? Just food for thought as we move through this uncharted water. (Or re-charted water, however you choose to look at it.)

Clearly, I’ve never been black. I was raised in a small town, where at the time, there weren’t many black people. We had hispanics and Indians where I grew up. My parent taught me that everyone was the same. We were all human and they taught me that golden rule: “Treat others the way you would want to be treated.” I grew up with a respect for all people. Maybe I was naive, but I truly never saw the difference in another person’s skin. I have, however, always seen deeper than that. When I moved to Philadelphia in the 90’s and worked on a campus near West Philadelphia, I was the minority. It was never the color of someone’s skin that scared me, it was their behavior and the same rings true for me today.

Americans have perpetrated some of the worst atrocities on our fellow human-kind. Rather than repeat them, how about we learn this from history?`

Just because we practiced things like Jim Crow laws and segregation based on skin color, beliefs or backgrounds doesn’t mean we need to keep repeating the same histories over and over and over. Have we learned nothing from our past? Do we really want to relive those times again? Wouldn’t it be far better for us as a society to be less judgmental and stop trying to prove we’re supreme over others?

Are we going to truly go back to a place in time where now the vaccinated or masked, or unvaccinated or unmasked, individual will only be able to drink out of water fountains, eat at restaurants, and attend events? Are we really going to separate ourselves again? Wasn’t lock down and isolation and separation enough?

When will we realize we’re repeating our histories, and moreover, when will we learn from them?

Next week, in the last segment of the topic, I’ll get into some of the legal and medical histories and how they pertain to what’s happening in our world around us today.

For this week, I’d like to leave you with another quote. Generally, I read this quote as motivation for self-improvement, but I believe it has just as much impact here. While I believe we need to look back to avoid repeating history, this anonymous quote gives me hope for the future: “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.”