Portfolio; Race Issues: Political Science; Caucasian Chalk Circle: Day 4

Lab: Period 1

Morning reading task: please read the following short articles about key political ideas concerning race and culture. Consider some of the following prompts:

• 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?
• Write a gothic-style story or parable about Bakunin's idea that power corrupts.
• Any other idea you had while reading these summaries/articles.

Read the poetry packet. Use the poems as inspiration for your own writing.

Other prompts:

See other prompts in the post below. Of particular interest should be the following:

Required Prompt (due in your portfolio in April): 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.

• Use of a narrator or character that "breaks the fourth wall" (directly addresses the audience)
• Use of montage, as in film, by juxtaposing scenes or episodes; use of parallel action
• Songs or parables with overt political or social messages
• Plots are non-linear, or fragmented
• Scenes are longer or self-contained episodes that create an epic play spanning time
• Actors play various or many parts
• Play is set in the past but comments on contemporary issues
• No use of the unities of time, place, or action (the Unities)
• Non-realistic acting, set, and/or dialogue
• Issues of class or culture, minorities, race, or politics common
• Characters are "types" not necessarily individuals--they represent the collective idea instead
• Signs and placards announce new scenes
• Use of screen projection, music, lack of lighting
• Historical characters are presented in the story (or discussed)
• Names of characters are generic (worker, peasant, doctor, etc.)
• Focus of the play is on a social issue or society, as opposed to individual characters
• Didactic dialogue (purpose is to inform or teach)
• The play requires a good amount of philosophical thought or a philosophical debate or agitation occurs to make the audience think
• Aim is for the representational as opposed to the realistic

Classroom, Period 2:

The Caucasian Chalk Circle. We will continue our reading of the play. Look for elements of Epic theater as we read. Capture the style for your required piece (see above). Jot down ideas or thoughts as we read. Get philosophical.

HOMEWORK: None. If you didn't read the handout articles or packet of poems, please do so on your own time. Use any of this material as inspiration for your writing, particularly on the subject of "race".