Buried in the Bitter Waters by Eliot Jaspin

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Response Paper One: Buried in the Bitter Waters by Eliot Jaspin Of course I do not consider myself to be a racist, or a bigot, but I am aware of socially conditioned stereotypes and prejudices that reside within. That awareness, and the ability to think for myself, has allowed me to approach issues with clarity of mind and curiousness at the social interactions of various movements. Buried in the Bitter Waters, by Elliot Jaspin, has easily awakened my sensibilities and knowledge of modern era race relations in the United States. I read each chapter feeling as if I had just read it in the pages before. The theme of racial cleansing - of not only the colonizing of a people, but the destruction of their lives and livelihood – was awesome. The “awesome” of the 17th century, from the Oxford English Dictionary, as in “inspiring awe; appalling, dreadful.” Each story itself was a meditation on dread and horror, the likes of which my generation cannot even fathom. It is with that “awe” that I reflect in this response paper. Perhaps the most startling chapter of the book, “McNeel...

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