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The Long Walk Home The time in which Odessa lives is unfamiliar to most that was not alive or that did not live in the south. The daily struggle of African Americans of the time is also unfamiliar to whites. There exists a level of prejudice that we could not even imagine today. Odessa, like other black folk sees the injustices that exists and realizes that change is inevitable but not possible without organization and solidarity. The simple idea that blacks are not equal, in any way, to the whites is obviously ludicrous. How can a human being think, that because of the color of one’s skin, they are not the same. People of this time even go as far to suggest that blacks are not part of the human race and that they are more closely related to animals. Imagine that? This is an example of how far unchecked thinking could take a person, but in this time many whites feel this way, and the rest have no choice but to abide. If they do not they would be shunned and labeled a “white nigger” which is just about the same as being black. I grew up in two countries, and I am married to a person from yet another country. During my time in the United States, I always lived in the L.A. or San Diego area, which is needless to say, is multi-cultural. I traveled through out the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Japan, and China. I take great interest in areas of countries that are not culturally the same as the rest. For example, Hong Kong with its slightly British twist, or New Orleans with its Cajun culture, or even Tijuana and the amount of poverty and crime, and Okinawa where everyone speaks both Japanese and English. Because of my past, I have become pretty good at seeing the differences and similarities of cultures, and I can see why people would easily stereotype other races and act upon that prejudice.
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