Celebration of Brown vs. Board Essay -- Event Race Racial

Celebration of Brown vs. Board It has been fifty years since the Brown vs. Board of Education decision and the University of Illinois has honorably commemorated this event. Our task from my Rhetoric 105 class was to go out and visit an event that commemorates the Brown vs. Board decision. The first event that attracted me was the exhibit at the Krannert Art Museum called â€Å"Social Studies: Eight Artists Address Brown v Board of Education.† The eight artists that contributed work to the exhibit were Dawoud Bey, Sanford Biggers and Jennifer Zackin, Brett Cook-Dizney, Virgil Marti, Gary Simmons, Pamela Vander Zwan, and Carrie Mae Weems. As I walked into the exhibit, I felt almost privileged in a sense. The people around me seemed to be dressed nicely, well cut, and well groomed. Basically they appeared well off, as I strolled in with my scratched and wrinkled jeans and hoody sweater. I felt almost as if at any inopportune moment they would ask me to leave and come back when I had my ‘privileged’ clothes on. Nevertheless, I looked around as I found my way to the exhibit and found absolutely no African Americans, besides myself; which made me feel shame. Not for myself, but more of a â€Å"shame on you† for other African Americans that I felt should have been there. I felt like they are taking for granted something that they did not always have and It surprises me that the only people that I saw to celebrate the passing of fifty years of the Brown v Board decision were a child day care field trip, an old couple, and a few other adults; none of whom belonged to any minority group. I felt eyes on my back through the calm vibes of the museum and because I am a minority this feeling often comes more... ...ood shape the way people eat, breath, and live. I am very glad that I came to this exhibit. It gave me a chance to see how the world is like through the artist’s eyes. The more people see things through other’s eyes, or other’s point of view, the more they can detach themselves from conclusions or restrictions that they already hold to themselves. That way people can be as they once were, with no blindfolds or masks, and accept the world as it is with everything and anything that comes in it. Then I will not have to worry about eyes on my back or any judgments made about me. It has been fifty years since it was declared that segregated schools were unequal, but has it since equal? What if there were nothing or nobody attaching or instilling beliefs to us in the world? Will it be then that everyone accepts each other fully and completely, without any more ‘bull-shit’?