"Finders keepers, losers weepers," is something that most people probably said at one point in their life upon finding something that didn't seem to belong to anyone. Though often thought of as something that only little kids say, it seems to be a mentality that is common throughout modern day society and throughout history. Part of the problem though is that when people find something that isn' theirs, they often take it without wondering about the person who it truly belongs to.
When Christopher Columbus (or any other settlers) first arrived to the Americas, they seemed to give very little consideration to the people whose land they were taking. When they first arrived, the natives were probably fascinated. They had never seen people like this before, and probably had no idea that soon, these people would be trying to take over their land and kill them. They didn't know that, eventually, their population would be dramatically reduced and that their culture would be almost completely taken over by the European culture. They didn't know that, hundreds of years later, they would still be struggling for basic human rights and looking for recognition and still asking people to repay them for what happened so long ago. When Columbus and other settlers arrived, they paid little to no attention to the thoughts and needs of the Natives.
Currently, gentrification is an issue in Chicago and around the United States. I have lived in the Logan Square/Humboldt Park area for almost eight years and in that time, the neighborhood has changed drastically. It went from being a primarily Mexican-American neighborhood to one that has been overwrought with young, mostly white, hipsters. As the demographics of the neighborhood change and it becomes more "hip," the price of rent goes up, and as a result many of the poorer families and businesses that have been here for years are forced to leave. Similar things are happening around the United States in Harlem, New York City, all over San Francisco, and in so many other places. In cases like these and with the Native Americans, the people moving in do all the keeping and those who are forced to leave are the weepers.
Iris,
ReplyDeleteI find it really interesting how you use the phrase "finders keepers losers weepers" in your analysis/response. It is so intriguing because in America at least, we grow up hearing this phrase repeatedly. While it's usually in a joking matter it oftentimes sinks in and becomes a large part of the mentality of many Americans. I think this subconsciously can cause people to have this idea that if they find something they don't have to return it to the person it belongs to even though they bought it. They can just take it and bring it home, which was very much the case when the settlers took the land of the Indians. The Indians had been living in the land for thousands and thousands of years but when the settlers Arrived they took the land without thought. This idea of manifest destiny in my opinion clouds people's judgment and causes them to think of themselves as deserving and righteous. This in turn causes them to think of everyone else as below them.