Do the Right Thing: Conclusion

LAB:

5-10 minute check in. Check in with your reading groups. How is your reading going? What issues do you think are interesting in the book? Which characters and scenes are most vivid or difficult? What questions or issues do you have? Discuss. At 7:40, please turn your attention to your portfolio.

Portfolio PROMPT ideas:

• Challenge a stereotype (explore how a character's outer image reflects on his/her inner image, or explore how certain behaviors lead us--or a character--to judge that character's personality or future behavior, etc.)
• Write about an event that happens on one single day. Tell the story of at least 3 characters who experience that event on that single day.
• Write a story/poem outside your identified culture (if you are Black, write from a White perspective, if you are Asian, write from a Black or Latino perspective, if you are female write from a male perspective, if you are straight write from a gay or lesbian perspective, etc.)
• Make a short film about race or culture.
• Respond to Lincoln's statement that "no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent." 
• Consider how we, as citizens, give tacit (silent) consent to others in our lives by not speaking out, or examine the history of hypocrisy of the American government.
• Are people or certain hegemonies or cultures equal? Examine why there are inequalities in our society? How does pop culture and/or media contribute to or fight this inequality?
• Is our government, as Thoreau feared, the agent of injustice? Explore the idea. How and/or why? Do you have a personal story that you can relate? Tell it.
• How should the government or governmental institutions (like education, for example) get out of people's way to allow them to flourish?
• Dream of a conversation between Thoreau, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, or another pop culture figure. How might it go?
• Is civil disobedience the only answer? Explore our options.
• Is dictatorship an 'historical inevitability' under a capitalistic society?
• Can Garvey's dream of a regenerated African civilization come true? Why or why not?
• Does "African fundamentalism" help or hurt the black community?
• Consider Manabendra Nath Roy's conclusion that the oppressed must break with those who are oppressors. Tell the story of a character who attempts this "separation".
• Is there hope for the upper class to avoid the depravity and cruelty that comes from amassing wealth in a capitalistic society while others (the lower classes or working classes) suffer?
• Read the poetry packet. Use the poems as inspiration for your own writing.
• Examine an area of human or cultural progress and explain the social cost of this progress (Ferguson)
• Is Ferguson correct in stating that "commercial growth is driven by self-interest...happening at the expense of traditional values or cooperation"?
• How might we advocate an issue (for example concerning race) of civic spirit, encouraging people to act in the interest of society rather than self-interest.
• Respond to W.E.B. DuBois' ideas. Have things changed to solve the color line problem in our culture?
• Write about being a "problem" in a society or culture from the perspective of the person who is a problem.
• Examine or comment on the issue of double-consciousness
• What is your opinion as to how to solve race problems in our country. Should a group compromise or cause agitation to achieve their goals?
• Examine race as a social construct; consider Gilroy's concern that we create a false idea of "natural" categories by putting different people into groups, leading to a division between "them" and "us" (note Ferguson's theories in comparison to Gilroy's)
• Write about a time you felt discriminated against because of your race, class, gender, age, or sexual orientation.
• Think about a race or culture. What assumptions are you guilty of thinking in regards to meeting a person outside of your hegemony.
• Examine and comment on Elijah Anderson's ideas.
• Should someone who owns a thing have possession of it? Or should someone who uses a thing best hold possession? Relate this to problems of race in our society. Should students, for example, be given every opportunity, even if they do not take advantage of that opportunity? Or should only those who use the opportunity gain benefits from it? Should, for example, immigrants get jobs if the indigenous people lack the skills or interest to hold these jobs? Or vise versa: should immigrants be given privileges (jobs, education, economic stability) that American citizens might lack? Respond in writing.
• Write your Brechtian style play. Find a contemporary issue, perhaps one on race, minorities, class struggle, or clashes with ethnicity (although you are free to choose some other topic that moves you). Using Brecht's characteristics of epic theater, write a story or play that utilizes some of these elements.

Period 2: We will complete the film. At the end, let's have a discussion about the ending of the film. Did ________ "do the right thing"? Make sure you turn in your viewing notes for participation credit. 

HOMEWORK: Geva's 10 minute play contest is due. Submit your play drafts to:

youngwriters@gevatheatre.org

You should have a TITLE PAGE with your name, address (including zip code), phone #, school name, grade, and email address in the lower left or right hand corner.

On your title page, please include your cast requirements (characters, and a short 1-sentence description of the character, if possible). If you enter, please send me a COMMENT in the COMMENT section regarding the title and the date/time you submitted your work.

Complete your chosen book by Tuesday, March 6. Apply your reading of Sociology & Political Science to the text.