Learning from the past
The effects of prejudice and discrimination can be utterly devastating to peoples who have suffered them. When we look to the past we can recognise where people have been mistreated and discriminated against. We should be able to learn from these terrible experiences and prevent them from happening again. Unfortunately people continue to be persecuted for their race, ethnicity, and religion even in the 21st Century.
Activity: Visit a museum or exhibition that considers the affects of prejudice and discrimination. Go on your own, with family, friends, or your youth group.
Going to a museum can help us to find out much more about a situation in the past. Finding out more about incidents of discrimination and prejudice may make us more determined to stand firm against discrimination at any level, and fight for a just world where people are treated equally.
Some museum websites offer information on their subjects which you can read online.
The Holocaust museum looks at genocide around the world (so it can be a disturbing site). It looks at how, from times past, through the second world war and beyond into our own century with the crisis in Darfur in Africa, groups of people have suffered persecution and even death because of racial hatred. http://www.ushmm.org/education/forstudents/
The District Six museum charts the course of apartheid looking particularly at the persecution around a district in Cape Town where a community was forcefully 'removed' by the white ruling apartheid government, because the location in the heart of the city was seen as only fit for whites. http://www.districtsix.co.za/
If you know about a good museum which deals with prejudice and discrimination write and let us know. [link to global village email/share stuff]