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equality " all men are created equal" yet people of color and women were left out of it

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The meaning has changed and evolved over time. Black people were left out initially followed by their fight for equality. The ideals were there but the challenge was making them true for everyone in the country. America was built on racism, meaning there was a lack of equality from the start or creation fo the country. Kate

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Equality started as all "White Men" Are created equal, but over time it started to encompass other races and genders including African Americans and Woman.

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"All men are created equal" excluding people of color- Madelyn 

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"All men are created equal" excluding people of color- Madelyn 

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The idea of equality began with just including white men, then over history was repeatedly challenged to also include most and then all people of the United States. 

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The idea of equality began with just including white men, then over history was repeatedly challenged to also include most and then all people of the United States. 

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- Witt

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"All men are created equal" Leo Sequenzia

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"All men are created equal" Leo Sequenzia

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First said that "All men are created equal" but over time we saw white supremacy and discrimination against African Americans

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All men AND women are created equal. No one should be treated differently on the basis of race or gender among other things.

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"all white men are created equal"

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Equality was established, but it has taken time to make them applicable to everybody.

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apply to everyone, at first it was just white men

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All white men being created equal- Leo Sequenzia

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All white men being created equal- Leo Sequenzia

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ideals were set but they did not apply to everyone

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the country was built with a set of ideals; however, these ideals were not all accounted for through history. For example, equality was never followed and still isn't.

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An interesting point that the U.S. was behind the other countries in terms of equality.

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why was the idea that people of color were savages not challenged, why did it take so long for their to be back lash on this topic?

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Jonas Earlier in history it was said and believed that African Americans were savages and less than whites meaning they could never reach equality.

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America was created with many ideals yet they weren't upheld. Equality was an original ideal, however it has been challenged repeatedly because African Americans are still being discriminated against.

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That whites, especially men, are better than other minorities, especially blacks.

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It was a "white man's ideal" that Black people were always inferior, despite a lack of evidence to support that assertion. They went to the extent of fabricating falsehoods to support what they wanted to believe.

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The idea that africans are "savages"- an old American idea

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equality, freedom, and determination. However, these really only reappear for whites because they are not followed for minorities in the country.

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Jonas It made me realize that America was always behind in their racism and progress toward equality. We always learn that the British were bad, but the Americans were also fighting to keep slavery.

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The racism in our country and the fact that our country was built on racism challenged the idea of equality for all. When they said equality, they meant for White people only.

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How did people belive ideas that Africans brains could be smaller then White peoples.

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Many people see the U.S. as the worlds leading question, and while in some ways they are, they are no where near the top in terms of equality.

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Why did people believe ideas with no evidence, but needed evidence to know that they were wrong?

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WHY were white men so immature as to 'create' facts to prove themselves superior to Blacks? What did they think they had to gain or defend?

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Even with a study showing that blacks and whites are 99% the same, people still argue that they are different, and whites are better than blacks. How can someone not believe a scientific study?

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Jonas-A reoccurring theme is racism. It started with slavery, but when that ended they were denied their equal rights and they continued to fight, but racism always seems to come back after every effort and progress is made.

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Throughout the course of this discussion I've been realizing that by justifying their superiority that white men were actually being very defensive. Did they feel threatened by the presence of other races? It's like a playground bully who feels bad about themselves but bullies others to feel better. In fact, Reynolds draws that connection numerous times throughout the book.

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Jacob brought up a really good point, they were able to justify what they were doing by saying that black people weren't human. SO, it seemed as if they weren't being hypocritical

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There has been so much scientific evidence trying to go against slavery, such as whites and blacks being 99.9% the same, yet whites still try to stay with their story. How are people still following along with the story of savages when there is physically no evidence backing it up?

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I think what grace said was really interesting. She said that Jefferson knew slavery was wrong but he decided that the country depended on it. That the economic benefit outweighed the wrongs of slavery and racism. I completely agree with this and I think that because the country was built a foundation of racism, and life without it, at this time, seemed impossible.

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Psychologically, why did white men need to be superior? They went to extreme lengths to prove their superiority, but why? Money? Power?

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Opportunity was constantly challenged for African Americans. They were denied certain opportunities that white people had.

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How is it that some people mentioned in the book such as Lincoln were abolitionists and went against the idea of slavery, however did things to support it as well?

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I found it interesting how they brought up the idea that throughout history people have tried to justify racism (to benefit economics, etc. rather than considering their humanity).

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Interesting how they used idas that Africans "aren't human" to justify slavery.

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Religion was used as evidence for what alot of people were doing

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equality, pursuit of happiness, liberty, and freedom. Although these are only originally granted to whites, they are always given these rights, however blacks had to fight to gain these human born rights.

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The money and economic benefits that slavery brought in was needed to support this new country.

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Ben said people would be pretty much isolated if they went against the ideas of slavery. Social pressure.

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I wonder if racism would still be prevalent if slavery never happened. If no one every used African Mexicans for slave labour would our society have the same racist ideas?

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Ashley talked about how white people saw Africans as savages and in the book it said how slaves needed saving. Does this mean that it was more about religion rather than race?

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Jonas-Was it the racist ideology and acceptance and lack of antiracist ideas which allowed people to morally do slavery?

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Jonas-Many people did slavery because of the economic impact and because they thought they were superior, but how could morally torture people? Have the times changed or was something allowing to mentally except what they were doing?

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Why did Abraham Lincoln show so many mixed signals in terms of his viewpoint on racism/slavery?

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Seemed as though
Economic Standpoint> equality

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It made me realize that people are a lot more greedy and they care more for the economy of basic human rights.

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Interesting: An abolitionist facade, but had assimilationist or even segregationist actions. "All over the place in terms of racism"

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I've realized hypocrites like Thomas Jefferson are a testament to just how irresistible slavery was to the enslavers. The financial incentive was just so powerful to the point that it clouded the inhumanity of owning human beings.

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People would contradict themselves in terms of saying slavery is wrong but their actions showing otherwise.

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An interesting point was that there were many instances of leaders saying antiracist things but doing racist actions. This made me think of how untrustworthy that made the leaders of a large country seem to the rest of the world and the American citizens.

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Jonas-Something I realized is that slavery and the wya many people thought African Americans were subhuman was a very big warning sign of the morality of the country. The only similarity I could find was nazi Germany as they made all the German's to believe the jews were less than human and it gave them a moral ability to despise them and hate which would be similar to how slaves were treated and why.

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Equality was challenged because African Americans were constantly being deprived of opportunities to come to power. This is still being exemplified today in that economic benefits are still being used to justify racist actions.

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legally many ideas were supported such as the messages in the DOI, the abolition of slavery and the 15th amendment. However these ideas were no where near supported in society and socially in America

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if u were to show that slaves had the ability to be educated, it would expose the idea that black people are inferior

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Idea that democracy resulted in slaves continuing to be mistreated with new laws being made

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A ideal of America to put the economic benefits over everything else. ie. Slavery and the climate change issue.

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the ideal of freedom was constantly challenged, and the fact that the country was built on a foundation of racism shows this.

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Dylan brought up how Americans put the economy above everything else. This shows the type of country we are and what we choose to prioritize

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Idea of justification, using the economy or things like that. Was used to justify slavery.

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Jonas an ideal that has been challenged over time was opportunities for African Americans. When they were slaves they obviously couldn't get opportunities unless they escaped. People like Phillis Wheatley who were bought and taught showed the possible actions that slaves could achieve. It showed that African American were removed from an opportunity which they could have accomplished many things with.

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Anti-racism is beginning to emerge as an increasingly American ideal rather than a 'radical' ideal.

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The economic benefits of something are put above other things. Selfishness and hypocrisy. Historically, people have acted to only benefit themselves.

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I feel like there has always been an aspect of selfishness in American history, and I think through this book that ideal was brought to the spotlight. For example, the government worked for economic benefit over equality.

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Hugh said that the country kind of threw their morals out the window. I think this is very interesting and very true. The government would only really work for their benefit and the benefit of whites while leaving out a huge population of the country. They gave up a lot of the things they stand for in order to succeed.

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The idea that racism didn't matter if there were economic benefits to it. These benefits outweighed basic morals.

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Economic Benefit continues to out way the way people were being treated. It seemed as though money was more important than anything else, slavery was somewhat normal

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Another interesting point that made me think is how literature influenced people. Someone said how if you went onto the internet and all their was was racist posts you might be influenced to. I now better understand the huge impact literature had historically when it came to racism because racist readings was all that people were exposed to. So even thought it was wrong, that was all people had to believe

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Rights continue to be challenged today because of how America prioritizes the economy over the citizens

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Overtime people's morals have started to change and anti-racism has become more prevalent and important today.

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How could anyone every think that the 3/5 compromise made sense?

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the rights to life and liberty were constantly challenged, and still are. Slave had no rights, so these ideals were challenged from the get-go.

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I found it interesting how Evelyn mentioned a young girl picked a white doll over a black doll because it shows how the idea of White superiority is still engrained into society today.

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Continued exposure to racist ideas has resulted in implicit bias, stereotypes, and subconscious prejudice so that now so many people are racist without even realizing it. It is for this reason why things like affirmative action are effective towards leveling the racial playing field.

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most american ideals, such as freedom, equality, etc., have always been supported for whites

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Jonas-I noticed that for equality when I was younger all the shows and movies I watched there would also be a white man as the protagonist. But recently in the past year many shows and movies started creating diverse casts and that made me realize that in the past everything was based around the white man and now woman and people of color are being embraced in media.

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The media is so popular and when they say one thing everyone believes it. And even in history when people of power would justify slavery, everyone would also justify it because people tend to follow others and believe what they hear.

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The media has such a large impact, how can u expect people of color to think there are almost no examples of that

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The false narratives surrounding race and how things like science was used to justify white superiority.

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one ideal that has reappeared over time is the ideas that african americans have a gain ti the economy it happened in the begging of US history and happened again in the Harlem Renaissance when they were used as entertainment and brought a new economy to Harlem.

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America created a foundation of a racist country with ideals against African Americans which is what the country was built off of. Slaves were been used since the founding of the country, and after all of the scientifically proven studies that they're not inferior, the ideal of racism still remains today.

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Although ideals such as "all men are created equal" have long existed, for a long time they have also not applied fully to all Americans. Overall the idea of liberty and equality has been challenged, because although it was a long existing ideal, it hasn't exactly applied to all Americans (black Americans and women).

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Opportunity and the lack of opportunity- African Americans were told that they weren't intelligent and smart but that's because they never had the opportunity to be education which differs from whites.

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Opportunity is an ideal challenged overtime. Blacks were constantly challenged and were rarely given fair chances throughout American History.

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Opportunity is an ideal that was challenged because even when African Americans were equally smart as someone white it would be so much harder to get a job. If an African American doesn't have as good of an education as someone white, then they are behind in life, because it is hard for them to go to college, and then get a job, and raise a family.

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Not only was equality a huge ideal, opportunity for people of color was and still is a huge ideal due to the history of our country and how it has ultimately set people of color up to fail or to not have certain opportunities

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Voting rights for African Americans is a fairly new ideal. Even when it first became legal, they made it nearly impossible to do because of financial situations.

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I never really thought about how big of an impact the media has on what we believe and we see and after the conversation I think I can extrapolate this to spreading information that they want you to hear as opposed to spreading the whole truth.

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One that has been supported over time is that All Men are Created equal. This meaning has changed thought in the begging it mean only rich white men. But now it is begging to mean all men and women of all races have the same opportunities .

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The ideals of liberty has long reappeared over time. For instance, it was a popular idea during the American Revolution, and although it didn't apply fully then, the idea of liberty would be used time and time again mainly in the struggle of equality.

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Racism has constantly been supported over time, and these false narratives have been created to "prove" to some people that they were right that Black people were less.

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We as a country kind of dug ourselves our own hole based on our racist past and now it's our job to revert that and fix that default racist mindset that Leo brought up. As well as this, Evelyn brought up in our discussion about the doll video and how it's now our job to make these young generations know that it's ok to be African American and that every skin color is beautiful because our traumatic past that contradicts this.

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Actively fighting and pushing for equality in areas where there haven't been in America yet has become a very prevalent goal today.

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Human Rights continue to change and become more true for all people.

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African Americans had difficulty gaining opportunities, and they were always told they weren't as equally smart. Abolitionists continue to work towards equality and challenge these ideals that racist people create.

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How did religious and educational influences impact american ideals and the base for racism?