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Essay On Destined To Witness By Hans J. Massaquoi

1497 Words6 Pages

"I can't breathe" is a slogan that everyone has heard, and it is a slogan associated with the "Black Lives Matter" movement in the United States. As you know from the website amnesty, George Floyd's life was lost at the knee of a police officer in the United States, which led to millions of people taking to the streets for weeks to protest and demand change. This was a racist incident. The loss of George Floyd's life, caused by discrimination and exclusion, changed his life. The book, Destined to Witness written by Hans J. Massaquoi, illustrates how identity and belonging are deeply intertwined, and the experiences of exclusion and discrimination can shape people’s lives. Destined to Witness is a book about his life and upbringing as a black …show more content…

If a person has experiences exclusion and discrimination, they may have a range of negative emotions like loneliness, insecurity, and low self-esteem, which can lead them to feel inferior to others and automatically bring them in thus willingly being at the bottom of society. Ultimately, the way these people understand and view themselves and others are fixed, and naturally, prejudice and discriminatory thinking cannot be eradicated. If those who are discriminated against acknowledge and support prejudice and discrimination, then there will be more and more exclusion and discrimination in …show more content…

Anti-Semitic measures were taken in many areas during 1933. With such outrageous measures as the requirement of a yellow card for Jewish students and the prohibition of Jews from working in the pharmacy industry, the extent of the exclusion and discrimination against Jews at the time is difficult to estimate. In his book, Massaquoi recounts several incidents of discrimination that he faced during his childhood in Nazi Germany. At school, for example, Massaquoi was called special names because of the color of his skin, and many of his classmates would not approach him or even ostracize him. Most people are not ostracized or discriminated against as a student, but this behavior can lead to psychological developmental effects on the student as stated in the article "Prejudice and discrimination", where individuals turn the prejudice against them into shame, low self-esteem, fear, and stress. He was also subjected to a lot of discrimination because of his skin color. He was also denied access to certain places because of his skin color. All of this led to him questioning his identity and not feeling like he belonged, and not being able to perceive himself well. This had a lasting impact on his psyche, as he grew up constantly thinking that he was a racial outsider, that he

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