David Fortuna

HIST 1700-017

History: Ethics vs. Action

One thing that struck me as interesting in class was the repeating pattern of injustice
versus the question of ethics. I was blown away to learn that the struggles for equal rights for
women and African Americans lasted over 100 years. Even more so, I was astounded by how
often the common situation in which people were faced with something wrong, which caused
an outcry to make things right played out. I put wrong and right in quotations, because things
may or may not have been considered wrong or right, respectively, at the time. Nowhere in
American history is this more apparent to me that during the mid-late 20th century campaigns for
equal rights. Whether it be for the rights of women, African Americans, or Latino Americans,
the movement always cried to end something that they considered wrong, regardless of what the
majority thought.
The never-ending conflict of action versus ethics tied in nicely to my psychology class
this semester. A significant portion of that class was devoted to Social Psychology, which is
the study of human interaction, often on a wide scale. The fight for equal rights was a perfect
example of many aspects of psychology, ranging from breaking the societal norms, various
methods of persuasion, conflict of personal interests and beliefs, and more. The link between the
2 was so clear to me that, from the moment I was told about this assignment, I knew exactly
what I wanted to write about. Our world might never be truly free from injustice, but we can
learn many things from our mistakes, and not just the history behind them.