Walking through the museum, a volunteer during The Burning of Book asked, “what would happened if more students said no?” “what would have change if certain events didn’t happen?” this just made me think about how after such tragic events occur, how much better it would be to stop them from happening rather than asking why afterwards.

As well, the holocaust museum opened my eyes even more the comparison to the civil rights era in America. The relation to racial hate and discrimination is something that is very astonishing to me especially how close in time these eras happened within each other.

Also something that is mentioned a lot when talking about starting movements. Often times it’s the youth like college students who are the grassroots or the physical action that start bigger dominio affect if change. During the museum “The White Rose” was a  college student group in Munich during the fall of Hitler who openly protest against the Nazi efforts and challenged the corrupted ideas that were in society during that time.

Later in day 3, we visited the National Museum of American History. This was a very interesting museum to me because one, this place is huge and the amount of times I got lost is pretty crazy. But also, since it was so big, there was so much to see…like so much to see. I was trying not be too overwhelmed by everything though you could see things like original costumes worn but Walter White from Breaking Bad to how the earliest homes of America looked like. This museum has so much to offer when you realize that America is a pretty young country comparatively. Also, going a second time is must to make sure you get to take in the evolution of American. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅🦅

The Fredrick Douglas Museum/House was one of my anticipated visits and it was great! One thing I was really hoping for during this trip was to go see first hand and local activists that were prominent during the Civil Rights in different states. So being able to go to Fredrick Douglas house with all the first hand artifacts and learning the history of his role the Civil Rights was exactly what I was hoping for and was really enjoyable. One of my favorite things that i learned about him was that how his 2 home in D.C. was a checkpoint but also a place for many leaders/officials came to discuss plans and other things. This is something that i’m starting to realized that many Civil Rights Leaders did which really shows a since of community and togetherness.

This museum was outstanding to me. I feel like growing up and going through school, Native Americans are talk very very little and at some places, not talked about at all and when they are talked about, for the lacked of a better term, the history is very whitewashing towards the Americans POV to make the Americans look “nicer”. Things like the Trail of Tears which at a certain point of time was erased from history for a couple of years, was a brutal time but actually reading more about it at the muse from different perspective was just unbelievable. I felt so ignorant and wished I spent more time in my life learning about these tribes were and their culture.

On the other hand, I think now in society, people are starting to realize the appropriation that Americans have been doing towards these communities like mascots, phases, and entertainment and have been taking a step back and changing the narrative for the better. One examples that comes to mind is how the football team, Washington Wizards were previously known to be the Washington Redskins.

Another part of the Museum that I found really interesting was the Native Americans fighting in American wars. One of the big questions posed was “Why fight for America?” The reasoning they fought was the same as why anyone would fight, they were American too and wanted to fight for their country and wanted to show their patriotism. What was even cooler was their unique and exclusive ways they were involved in American wars like spy secret code encryption/decryption.

I think it’s so cool to just walk around the national mall and see all the structures for the different historical eras. Especially with things like the Lincoln Memorial, how impactful and influential these people were not only to have a huge sculpture of them but to also how they changed the whole nation leading it to what it is now.

But going through this museum and see all the amazing accomplishments that people who look like me and have been through similar experiences and fought so I can be in the position that I am at today gives me more than enough Motivation to push forward and be the best person I was born to be.

I really love just exploring more about culture with things that I already knew or things that are completely new to me. I also love seeing other communities willing learn about a piece of black peoples life and supporting who we are as people. 💜