An Instrument of My Own Will

J.T. is a full-time student, who is studying engineering with a passion to make sense of problems, mechanical or otherwise.

He plans to be an impactful part of the community and continue education in hopes of earning a Master’s degree.

Congratulations to J.T. for winning third place in this years Black History Month essay contest.

For a race that has been known to bring people up by putting others down, humans will always be drawn to a linear hierarchy. Kings, queens, and the notion of noble blood have proved to be less than honest. And with honesty in mind, such a system is pretty easy to see and follow. For people, safety is as important as the governing and justice which met around them is important. We, as humans, have done much in the pursuit of safety and justice, assuming they are one in the same. Bell Hooks challenges the separation of this, saying that they are of course important and should be sought, but not through means of violence. Instead, through means of creativity and positivity to reduce the dehumanization of people that were seen as a resource to those who have been elevated on the back of those who have put in work for such little return.

Even today, we can see that people are often dehumanized to the point where they are no longer embody a person with complexity, ideals, thoughts, beliefs and values, but are replaced with a statistic in a report to convince a committee that violence among certain groups threatens the safety of another. It becomes tough to see where to intervene, on a global scale, in an age of increasingly easy access. Obviously no one should be denied rights that we should consider to be basic and common to all humans, but Hooks asks who is responsible for making the changes happen.

Hooks’ views seem to hint that there is a responsibility which falls on the people to stand for themselves in the face of danger, using tools such as a positive outlook and critical thinking to solve problems within the world. Today, the pace at which things seem to change is magnitudes quicker than it has been within the last millennium, even in the last century, and certainly within the last decade. I agree with Hooks. There is an importance to being involved in the change you choose to be. The history books will show what we did and less of what we hoped to do.

As for myself, I can see that there are many ways to add or subtract value from another human’s experience. If we wish to uphold civil liberties, we cannot take them for granted and we must remain vigilant to point out injustice, not only with a finger to accuse an offender, but with a solution that would treat both sides with dignity and respect.

Photo by Toma Talpa