Reflection

As I spent my childhood in another country, the Philippines, my view on race has always

been indifferent. I always knew people were of different races from a young age but I never

found myself treating them differently. I knew of the existence of stereotypes because of the

consistent trend I’d see in movies, shows, and even jokes. The Philippines has a long history of

being colonized, recently being the United States. I have come to realize that the people of the

Philippines actually see the color white as some kind of race to be glorified and found to be

superior. This act has never been subtle due to the amount of skin whitening products and the

blatant disregard of racism towards Filipinos themselves and people of color.

Having brought this knowledge over to the United States, I’ve grown to be intolerable of

racism around me. I found it interesting how race was viewed in the classroom because the

history of Native Americans in the curricula has always been brushed over as if it’s a burden to

teach while trying to glorify American history of white men. Vague memories of middle school

history class would have activities that made it look like the Native Americans and colonizers

were friends in the feast of Thanksgiving. It was made to look like conversations about racism

didn’t belong in the classroom but FYS has shifted that status quo.

The main lessons I didn’t know before prior to FYS was the existence of ethnic studies

and the relevance of learning outside from the singular perspective. I knew of the awful events in

the past like the mass genocide of the Native Americans, the Atlantic slave trade (chattel

slavery), Manifest Destiny, and such. While events such as inherit sexsim and blatant racism still

persist to this day, it is important to be able to educate myself and others in order to fix a deep

rooted problem. The most important topic that has resonated with me that I have not learned

before is that slavery was a result of an economic need for the colonies, creating a system of
survival not for black people, but the colonists. In addition to that, racism was the ideology for

colonists used to justify slavery. In order to define the acts that still go on in recent events, it is

important to realize its roots and how terrible values are spread throughout.

Personally, my enrollment in FYS 146 has brought my outlook on the world and history

in a different manner. I’ve looked back on my past experiences in my history classes and realized

that the American public school system’s curriculum is created to only tell the stories of the

singular perspective, of course depending on the teacher in some cases. I’ve included my friends,

some who are not students from CSUMB, in conversations and debates regarding the lessons

taught in class because some of the texts and readings have resonated with me. Most of the views

in A People’s History of the United States were not taught in high school so it became very

interesting to bring it up to others.

FYS has shifted my way of thinking for the better as I critically analyze events in the past

and present in a way that makes me question if the present world has learned from history. Being

a critical thinker involves reading the text, acknowledging passages or quotes that either I find

confusing or important, analyzing it, and using reading strategies in order to understand it. That

whole process has made me a better critical thinker because it’s made me more aware of how

many steps I have to take in order to fully understand the text. After practicing the process, by

the end of reading A People’s History of the United States, I have learned how to seamlessly go

through it without a second thought.

In my own “Vision Statement” I wrote: My goal is to add on to the academic foundation

high school has provided to the new academic challenges college will lay out for me in order to

succeed in the medical path. I definitely feel closer to achieving the goals I described because

being in the medical field requires the individual to be able to treat everyone equally with respect
and the same high quality of care. After having an increased knowledge of ethnic studies, it gives

me confidence to speak out on injustices, not just in the health care system, but also out of it.

Ultimately, if I were to teach this class, the only thing I would do differently would be

adding more historical events but other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. The way the

class is formatted provides students with critical thinking skills to apply to past and recent events

that would carry on to other classes and outside of class. This new way of thinking and skills has

allowed me to become more active and involved in today’s events and my overall goals in life.