Summary Of Injustice By Loung Ung
Narratives are powerful forces that can engender both atrocities and healing. For example, the narrative of protecting one’s country from enemies was central to the Khmer Rouge genocide. However, victims like Loung Ung can also use purposive narratives to cope and heal by processing them into habitable memories. The dominant narrative regarding the injustice of Jim Crow today highlights the consequences of denying such histories. By allowing the narrative of active avoidance to reproduce in schools and media, it forms barriers to counternarratives that could empower marginalized populations, and hinder reconciliation and atonement.
The central story that led to genocide in Cambodia was one of protecting the country from internal and external …show more content…
Instead, her story was one of defiance and rage against her circumstances. Repeatedly, Ung actively resists the values and propaganda of Angkar (Ung, p. 132). Her family is framed in the same purposive manner. Her mother’s resistance and the depictions of her siblings’ sacrifices illustrate how Ung found meaning in family amidst the horrors. Moreover, the structure of the book resembles many purposive narratives because it depicts fighting against events to return home (Warren lecture). Ung defied Met Bong to visit Ma and she struggled out of Cambodia to return home years later (Ung, p. 152, 160, 238).
The book is an alternative narrative to the one produced during the genocide. Ung meant to have the tragedy mean something to the people who read it (Ung, p. 6). Injecting purpose into her narrative was central to the process of her coping. She created another narrative that rewrote the ones that were told to her. By writing them from a standpoint of a willful child she made the memories habitable to …show more content…
The popular thought is that racism applies to groups of people, therefore when one contains judgements to individuals, they can rationalize that they are not racist. Black men were conceptualized as dangerous and predators, they are still. To me, the difference is that before this judgment would apply in racial terms, whereas now the narrative codes it on a personal basis. The narrative evolves because the system is still intact (Warren lecture). Clearly, the current and past narrative on black populations are
The central story that led to genocide in Cambodia was one of protecting the country from internal and external …show more content…
Instead, her story was one of defiance and rage against her circumstances. Repeatedly, Ung actively resists the values and propaganda of Angkar (Ung, p. 132). Her family is framed in the same purposive manner. Her mother’s resistance and the depictions of her siblings’ sacrifices illustrate how Ung found meaning in family amidst the horrors. Moreover, the structure of the book resembles many purposive narratives because it depicts fighting against events to return home (Warren lecture). Ung defied Met Bong to visit Ma and she struggled out of Cambodia to return home years later (Ung, p. 152, 160, 238).
The book is an alternative narrative to the one produced during the genocide. Ung meant to have the tragedy mean something to the people who read it (Ung, p. 6). Injecting purpose into her narrative was central to the process of her coping. She created another narrative that rewrote the ones that were told to her. By writing them from a standpoint of a willful child she made the memories habitable to …show more content…
The popular thought is that racism applies to groups of people, therefore when one contains judgements to individuals, they can rationalize that they are not racist. Black men were conceptualized as dangerous and predators, they are still. To me, the difference is that before this judgment would apply in racial terms, whereas now the narrative codes it on a personal basis. The narrative evolves because the system is still intact (Warren lecture). Clearly, the current and past narrative on black populations are