Eyes on the Prize - Ben Sollinger

The thing that I found the most moving about Eyes on the Prize was how both de jure and de facto racism, sexism, and overall discrimination were so commonplace. This brings up the idea of “nature vs nurture”, and who really is to blame for the South’s racism. Is it the first generation, are are the people making the conscious decision to be discriminatory on their own, void of the fact of whether or not they were raised that way. I completely understand that they are accountable and accept the consequences for their actions, but who really is to blame for the thoughts behind their actions? The majority of the South, no matter what race, ethnicity, or gender, was born into this system. Whether they benefited from the system, or they were the targets, every single person born in the South became a cog in much larger machine. Now, continuing on with this cog metaphor, cogs can either do two things: do the work the machine has assigned, or do not do the work the machine has assigned. The system is either benefited or disrupted. Edmund Burke once said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. These cogs are either aiding in the maintenance of the system, or destroying it. Even those who do not believe they have done anything to propel the racism, they are still doing nothing to combat it. In this case, all bystanders are inherently evil. And throughout most of the South, a very substantial portion of the population are merely doing the jobs given to them. Each and every southerner was given the chance to either enhance the discrimination, do nothing, or disrupt the system set in place. The sad part is is that all those who are disrupting are crushed by the system in the end. Even MLK, arguably the biggest cog of them all, was eventually pulverized by the pressure of the system. Sadly, not enough cogs in the right places have been able to stop the machine completely. The short term goal is not to stop it, but to either slow it down or delay it so that others can get in a place that will aid their cause. It is our job, today, as politically-minded beings, to assist in the decrease of this deadly machine, so that maybe one day, with enough cogs, this machine will finally meet its long-awaited end.