Race & Politics: Day 2

Period 1:

Read the article summaries: Lincoln & Garvey.

Short videos to consider as inspiration/knowledge for your writing. Watch, take notes, brainstorm ideas for stories, plays, poems, podcasts, scripts, essays, memoirs, speeches, etc.:

• The Twisted Logic Behind America's Shameful Eugenic History (6 min)
• Further race/ethnicity info (Kahn Academy lecture, 6 min)
• The "real" Problem with Black America: Ben Shapiro
• Let's Talk About Race: TedX
• Black Self/White World: TedX
• Give Racism a Chance: TedX
• What Beyonce Taught Me About Race: TedX
• The Top 5 Issues Facing Black Americans
• The Myth of Escaping the Ghetto: TedX
• Why are Black Women so Angry
• The History of Eugenics in America (video series) (about 130 minutes, broken into 10 min videos)
• National Identity is Made Up
• CRISPR

Things to research (in the lab, on your own, during this unit, etc.):

• One drop rule
• Better Baby contests
• Beauty contests (& beauty pageant history)
• Nature versus Nurture
• Immigration
• Jim Crow laws
• The Negro Motorist Green Book 
• Current events regarding immigration
• Women in minority cultures/races

Classroom:

• America's Sources of Immigration 1850 to Today
• Crash Course Sociology: Dubois & Race Conflict
• Prejudice & Discrimination: Crash Course
• OP Docs: When Loud Music Turned Deadly (compare to Spike Lee's film...)
• OP Docs: A Conversation with Police about Race
• Being Native American in the US
• OP Docs: A Conversation with Native Americans about Race
• OP Docs: A Conversation about Growing Up Black
• OP Docs: A Conversation with Black Women about Race
• Op Docs: A Conversation with White People about Race
• MTV: What it Means to be White (41 min.)
• Op docs: A conversation with Latinos about Race
• Op Docs: A Conversation with Asians about Race
• The Modern Minority Myth
• Op Docs: Being Multiracial in America

Period 2:

Read the handout of poems and the Atlantic article by Ta-Nehisi Coates: "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration." Use your creativity to write a poem or essay draft inspired by one of these poems or what the article sparks.

Suggestions:

• Write a poem about a nickname (or racial slur) you or someone you know earned in school. 
• Write about a time you had to declare your racial heritage.
• Write about your parents (or a parent/relative, etc.) that had to assimilate or taught you something about your culture.
• Write about a relative or neighbor that you know in prison.
• Write a fictional story from the perspective of an inmate in a State or local prison or from a family member or law enforcement officer affected by crime or our prison system. To help you see the following sites:
• Race & Homicide in America (US World News Report, 2016) 
• Uniform Crime Reporting UCR (database from the FBI)
• Crime by Ethnicity, 2016 UCR (FBI)
• Create a documentary in a similar style to the Op Docs linked above.

If you finish early, use your time to write other things (see previous posts for options!), learn about Racial/Ethnic Prejudice (crash course), or read your novel.

So, how do we use what we've learned to help communicate our feelings about race? Can America's race problems be solved? Why or why not?

Use the discussion prompts today to write something regarding race in a creative way. Write creatively about the topic. 

HOMEWORK: Please read American War, Chapters 6-9. Write. Portfolios are due in 3 weeks!