Ok so this topic comes from the stories I hear at work and some recent race debates I’ve heard around social media. I also know this will most likely get moved due to the race factor but I feel it’s a good controversy topic.

As we all know the tension in the United States have been high with the race issues between white and black people. For the most part whenever there’s any argument of something offensive or racist happening, the response is always “stop living in the past” “it’s 2018 none of you experienced slavery” etc etc etc.

I work with the elder community and they tell me stories of all kinds of things when they were younger. Well what I hear about a lot is how they clearly remember segregation, the beatings, the torture, some hangings, humiliations, and many things like that that we learn about in history books. There are people still alive who lived through the era where they weren’t allowed in certain stores or restaurants, where they would get snatched up and beat just for being black and nothing would ever be done to the people doing the beating and snatching. And I hear these stories from both black and white patients.

So my question is, is the past really the past? Is it ok for people to say “it’s 2018 get over it” even to the people who lived through it? The younger generation may not have experienced all this, but they have grandparents, aunts, uncles still alive who have.