The venus hottentot inspired a conversation between me and my friend outside of class. They were upset by the story and seemed offended. They said to me that there was no way I could watch that and not be upset. Yet I was not upset, or at least not for the same reasons they were. People seem to make things more about race than they really are. I often point out to that person if it wasn’t blacks, it would have been someone else. Slavery started way before Africans were captured. Just knowing things like helps me think less of racial issues when talking about such a topic.
Another thing that is important to remember is we still exploit people of all races and ethnicities. It is human nature to look for the differences within each other. When someone seems extremely out of the norm often they are exploited. Society justifies this exploitation by labeling it curiosity or saying that there is something wrong with the anomaly. When you think about it in that terms and remember the venus hottenttot is not the only one to be exploited; you would expect such foolishness to happen in a society at that time.
Over all this was a tragic thing to happen to a person. I feel sorry that this ever happened. Yet I feel that we haven’t learned our lesson. To look at ourselves as a society and understand the things we’ve done and why, in order to prevent it from happening to someone else in the future.
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