The legacies are often shared by different countries but not all of them took responsibility for the aftermath. Grace Lee Boggs is one of the nation’s oldest human rights activists. She believed that it was by working together in small groups that positive social change can happen, not in large revolutions where one group of power simply changes position with another. Grace Lee Boggs embraces a philosophy of consistent addressing – not just of who we are as people, but of how we relate to those in our community and nation, to those in other countries, and to the local and worldwide environment.
To a great extent, It’s not us against them. It is all of us. The quotation states that we can’t hope to change anything unless we understand how we are connected to it and each other. We have become experts in identifying gaps, especially in others, that it has overshadowed our ability to see ourselves as part of the problem and solution.
We have to see how they are connected, fortify those relationships, and fulfill the responsibility that belonging creates. The source should be fully accepted as yes, we need to be part of a collective in order to change it. From what we have learned, imperialism took over countries and lead to gruesome events like loss of culture, freedom, and dignity. To understand the role of Grace Lee Boggs’ quote, this essay aims to provide a discussion of imperialism and anti-imperialism.
We as a people who belong to the society knows what could be innovated and have the obligation to do something or have control over of our own resources, beliefs, and ideas. We believe that it is up to each person individually to have their own morals and standards– as well as to make choices based on it. However, we cannot escape our responsibility and leave the consequences to the people who had nothing to do with it.
In contrast, in which presents the view of Grace Lee Boggs’ beliefs, an alternative perspective like Rudyard Kipling illustrates that the white man’s power helped underdeveloped countries to relieve famine, provide medical assistance, abolish slavery, and construct the physical and the psychological groundwork for “civilization”. The opponents of Grace Lee Boggs’ principles believed that the increase in the speed, range, and depth of global trade had had an immense impact on the wealth of nations and individuals.
The tremendous rise in the standard of living of most people in Europe and North America is a direct legacy of historical globalization. First, it kicked economies off; bigger, prosperous countries were taking over smaller colonies and controlling them which established trade that created an economy for that nation. Second, it assisted with development; individuals from different parts of the world could go to places on the planet that they thought they never would. They now had the motivation to trade and have government control. Finally, colonialism additionally helped make individuals more civilized. It helped places that weren’t edified more modern and more engaging.
For example, the United States motivation for the Philippines. Americans believed that it was the job of the United States to govern and defend the archipelago against European countries. America had a positive impact in the Philippine Islands by establishing infrastructures like public education, roads, railroads, and hospitals. The U.S. also helped the Filipinos when the Japanese occupied the Philippines and eventually helped them to become an independent nation. “Despite the shaken state of the country, the United States and the Philippines decided to move forward with plans for independence.
On July 4, 1946, the Philippine Islands became the independent Republic of the Philippines, in accordance with the terms of the Tydings- McDuffie Act.” A quote from much Philippine Law/Business Handbooks The independence day was later changed by Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of the Philippines, to July 12, in honor of commemorating independence from the Spanish in 1898. The age of Imperialism brought back the idea of land is power and the Philippines changed because of it. The Spanish brought Christianity, America brought democracy, and the Japanese brought the idea of an actual Asian Empire into their heads. After the Philippines had been freed from the other countries rule, they kept this idea in their minds.
Imperialism was brought on by the idea that their country needs to become all-powerful, through a combination of land and money, and this brought unintended consequences. After what the legacies have left behind, there is still some undertone that remains evident in our everyday society over almost all nations. However, not all research shows that imperialism/colonialism has a positive impact on the society. Most evidence agrees to Grace Lee Boggs’ platitude: that European societies that go in and change other culture only create pandemonium.
Indigenous People and Frederick Douglass– an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, speaker, writer, and statesman who escape from slavery in Maryland– will most likely approve to Grace Lee Boggs’ statement. Her ideas of Imperialism are that people are aware that they cannot continue in the same old way, but are immobilized because they cannot imagine an alternative. To begin with, Imperialism took away of who they are– the oppression of native beliefs and culture. Second to that is massive mass exploitation of resources. And lastly, the unhealthy living conditions.
One, the oppression of native beliefs is an example of Residential School in Canada: A sponsored government established to assimilate Aboriginal peoples way of living to Euro-Canadian way. The two primary objectives of Residential Schooling were to remove and isolate influences from their homes, families, culture, and traditions and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. When a language is lost, then, its culture will start losing its organization; killing the language of the Aboriginals will lead to the end of their culture. Two, a mass exploitation of resources: an example of Belgium under King Leopold II took over the Congo, with its resources of rubber, ivory, gold, diamonds, and copper. He has a reputation today of Brutal treatment of the Indigenous Peoples.
Forced to work harvesting rubber, brutally punished the savage and tried to suppress knowledge of these atrocities. And lastly, unhealthy living conditions– slavery. Breaking the saying: “all men are created equal.” They were forced into labor and treated like property and the slave owners justify their behavior and believed they acted caring and conscientious to their slaves. Slaves would work overtime in pathetic conditions in order to enrich farm owners. Slavery was and still one of the greatest injustices ever committed against humans. Millions of slaves died because of harsh treatments and harsh conditions.
In all of these events, none of Europeans took responsibility for what they have done. They brushed it off as they believed that white men are superior and this is the way to civilize the burdens. These pieces of evidence of negative impact of imperialism overweigh the positive even though it is the reason for what we have today. We should approve in Grace Lee Boggs’ statement as I believe that we urgently need to bring our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other.
In her book, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, she said: “Real poverty is the belief that the purpose of life is acquiring wealth and owning things. Real wealth is not the possession of property but the recognition that our deepest need, as human beings, is to keep developing our natural and acquired powers to relate to other human beings.”
As stated in the first position, Imperialism thinks that this kicked economies off by bringing countries’ prosperity and taking over small colonies. To a certain extent they are right– but did they not know that they are all turning against each other? The Scramble for Africa shows how people became power hungry and tried to have control over as many places as they could; sometimes they would do whatever it took to gain control of another territory.
This is a case of a setting of the Berlin Conference. (European nations meeting to create rules on how to peacefully divide Africa among them for colonization.) Second, they proclaimed that it helped with expansion; people from other parts of the world could travel to places in the world and take government control. But did they know that it caused a lot of rebellion? Some of the places that were being taken control of didn’t agree and tried to fix it themselves and as a result, caused a lot of fighting with other countries. An example would be Rwanda Genocide; Germany claimed Rwanda in the “Scramble for Africa” – and favored Tutsis for key positions on a belief that they were more “Europeans”.
When Belgium took place, they continued to give Tutsis high status and created further division by requiring all to carry I.D. cards specifying whether they were Tutsi or Hutu. Belgians left Rwanda in 1962, which triggered a civil conflict over who would control the newly independent country and its resources. This event led to genocide killing 800 000 to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Third, they protest that Imperialism also helped make people more civilized. It helped make places that weren’t civilized more modern and more appealing.
But did they realize that it took away their culture? Took away their dignity? Took away their freedom? When the British and French and all those Europeans that would take over a place, they would often try and make the people in that place follow their beliefs like Christianity and speak their language that got rid of their own identity and collective. This forces them to become more like one another by integrating them into a singular culture.
Did they not forced Indigenous people to abandon their traditional way of life? To survive, they had to work in faraway mines, plantations, and factories. There, they often labored in appalling conditions for very low wages. The wealth produced by the colonies benefited rich people and rulers in the home countries, not the workers or the colony itself. After seeing this evidence, there is no way we can agree with this idea.
The principal motivation behind why Western civilization lacks Spirituality, or an awareness of our interconnectedness with one another and the universe, according to Gandhi, we give priority to the economy and technology over human interaction. Clearly, this essay has shown the main factors which impact historical globalization. In conclusion, we should be responsible for our actions like what Grace Lee Boggs said. Its Imperative– Europeans should be responsible for the legacies left behind.
Yes, Imperialism might have some positives, and they took all the responsibility for that– but did they take any for the negatives? You as a member of society should be part of a change. Legacy is not leaving something for people; it’s leaving something in people. Filipino History, Rwandan Genocide, Slavery, Residential Schools, and Racism still affect us even today. Legacy is what you give, create, impact, and contribute while you are living.
You have the saying, and you have the voice, you have the actions to leave a legacy behind. However, be prepared to take responsibility; Be prepared to take the consequences of the change in order to rebuild the society.
