Did your study abroad opportunity influence your perceptions about the United States?

My study abroad experience made me more critical of the U.S. particularly with its race relations and its inadequate addressing of its oppressive past. Even though race relations are far from perfect in South Africa, I felt that they are more open about their history and take more initiatives to address their history of racism and oppression. For example South Africa has a museum of apartheid near their capital. Touring a museum that documented the atrocities that have been committed in that country made me realize that America has yet to create any national museum acknowledging chattel slavery. Cambodia has a museum honoring the victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Germany has erected a museum dedicated to Holocaust survivors, and the United States has several Holocaust museums throughout its largest cities though this atrocity never took place on its soil. Going to South Africa made me realize many similarities between our struggles as black Americans and black South Africans, however it also made me realize how difficult it is to be a statistical minority and how our oppression here in the US is silenced and completely disregarded. Studying abroad made me feel that the U.S. may be the most resistant and incompetent nation in the world when it comes to improving its race relations thus I became even more passionate about racial justice in my community upon my return.