Unit 3: Humility and Boldness: Developing Racial Literacy to Expand American Democracy

In this unit, we will apply all that we have learned about the nature of power and obligations of those in a democracy and apply them specifically to the history and evolution of race relations in this country. Our goal for this unit will be to discover how we can counteract racial inequality by knowledge of self, honest and direct cross-cultural dialogue, and active anti-racism. We will explore the multi-racial, multi-faceted experiences of White people and People of Color, including African Americans, Asians, Latinos, South Asians, Middle Easterners, Arabs, and Bi/Multi-Racial individuals, and analyze how white supremacist thinking has affected all of our social and individual identities. To do so we will use the reflections of Richard Wright in Black Boy and Tim Wise in White Like Me.

Racial Identity Workshops

In these workshops, we explore the developmental process of identity. We then focus our attention on the creation of a personal racial identity and how it affects our experiences and perceptions of how race operates in the larger society. Readings and conversations reveal how racism functions both consciously and unconsciously as students develop their own racial identity and seek understanding of how to create honest, cross-cultural dialogue to counteract racial inequality.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE WORKSHOPS

In these workshops, we explore the developmental process of identity. We then focus our attention on the creation of a personal racial identity and how it affects our experiences and perceptions of how race operates in the larger society. Readings and conversations reveal how racism functions both consciously and unconsciously as students develop their own racial identity and seek understanding of how to create honest cross-cultural dialogue to counteract racial inequality.

Readings:

Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, Dr. Beverly Tatum
Can We Talk About Race?, Dr. Beverly Tatum
White Like Me, Tim Wise
Witnessing Whiteness, Shelly Tochluk
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, Peggy McIntosh
“The Cost of Racism to White People”, Paul Kivel
“The Invisible Whiteness of Being: Whiteness, White Supremacy, White Privilege, and Racism”, Derald Wing Sue
“What Happens When White People Change”, bell hooks
“The Trouble We’re In: Privilege, Power, and Difference”, Allan Johnson
“Transformational Resistance”, Bernal and Solorzano
“Beyond Black and White”, Martinez

Key Concepts:

Racial Identity Development
White privilege
White supremacist thinking
Internalized oppression
Antiracism
Transformational resistance

Ethnic Studies Workshops

Students will explore issues of marginalization among certain ethnic groups in the United States. The foundation of each workshop is a historical analysis of each group’s exclusion from American Society. Common themes that run throughout each of the workshops are immigration, language, citizenship, stereotypes, and identity.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE WORKSHOPS

Students move through a series of workshops which introduce them to marginalized ethnic groups in the United States. The foundation of each workshop is a historical analysis of each group’s exclusion from American Society. Common themes that run throughout each of the workshops are immigration, language, citizenship, stereotypes, and identity.

African American Studies Workshop

Readings:
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nahesi Coates
Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington
The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B DuBois
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X

Films:
13th, Ava Duvernay

Key Concepts:
Emancipation Proclamation
Plessy vs. Ferguson
The Great Compromise of 1877
Jim Crow
Minstrelsy
Black Caricatures
Prison Industrial Complex
Black Lives Matter Movement

Asian American Studies Workshop

Readings:

The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Oppression, Chou and Feagin
Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader, Eds Zhou and Gatewood
“The Waves of War: Immigrants, Refugees, and New Americans from Southeast Asia”, Bankston and Hidalgo
“Without a Trace: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Prime-time Television”, Chin, Milman, Deo, Lee, Yuen
Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality, “Asian Americans: Exclusion and Segregation”, Spring

Key Concepts:

Waves of Asian Immigration
Anti-immigration Laws
Model Minority
Japanese Internment Camps
Asian stereotypes

Latino Studies Workshop

Readings:

“10 Myths About Immigration,” Teaching Tolerance
“Latino Racial Formations in the United States,” Nicholas De Genova & Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas
“Life After Yale: Undocumented,” Lianne Membis

Films:

Wetback

Key Concepts:

Immigration
Paths to Citizenship
Latino Stereotypes
Images of Latinos in the media
Latin American History
Language
Identity

South Asian/Middle Eastern/Arab/North African (SAMEAN) Studies Workshop

Readings:

Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader, Eds Zhou and Gatewood
“Racial Profiling in the War on Terror”, Maira
Whitewashed: America’s Invisible Middle Eastern Minority, Tehranian