Assignment for Thursday 11-1-18

Pick 3 of the countries Moore visits in Where to Invade Next and bring in 3 articles discussing the reforms the countries implemented. Be ready to discuss the articles in class.

ESSAY 2

Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, and Ava DuVernay, director of 13th , both
argue that there is a systemic, designed link between America’s legacy and history of slavery and
the modern American system of mass incarceration. The way slavery shifted to convict leasing,
to Jim Crow segregation, to the war on drugs illustrates how “systems of oppression are durable
and they often reinvent themselves.”

What factor(s) allowed this system of social control to reincarnate and evolve throughout
American history? (You may choose to focus on 1 or multiple factors)

YOUR ESSAY MUST:

 Be submitted in class by October 30th. Late papers will not be returned with everyone else's, and
ONLY students who submit the essay on time and in class will be given an opportunity to revise.

Be at least 700 words in length.

Include an intro with a clear thesis statement, at least 3 body paragraphs and a conclusion. More
than 3 body paragraphs is perfectly OK.

Be well-organized and developed with supporting details and evidence.

Be proofread for grammar, sentence and other language errors.

Include evidence (examples, testimonials, anecdotes, quotes and/or paraphrases) from BOTH
Chapter 1 of Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow and Ava DuVernay’s film 13th .
Incorporate at least 2 sources obtained the LaGuardia library databases.

Be in the Proper Format -- - Stapled, DOUBLE SPACED, 12pt Times New Roman Font with 1
inch margins all around!

Include a proper heading and title. NO COVER PAGES or IMAGES.

Be in correct MLA format, including in-text citations and a Works Cited Page.

Be ORIGINAL and NOT plagiarized.

HOMEWORK FOR OVER THE WEEKEND

Each of you have been assigned 2-3 questions based on the New Jim Crow readings posted on the blog. Be sure to have answers prepared for our class discussion on Tuesday 10/23/18. You should write your answers down, but be prepared to TELKL us your answer and DISCUSS it and not  read what you wrote out loud.

SLAVERY as a Form of Racialized Social Control

ALEXIS

1. Describe the interactions that took place between blacks and whites in early colonial America, before chattel slavery.
2. Why did plantation farming shift from using indentured servants as labor to enslaved African people?

MALVIN

3. What reasons does Alexander give to explain why Africans were deemed the “ideal slaves”?
4. Explain the events of Bacon’s Rebellion.
5. What signal did Bacon’s Rebellion send to the planter elite?

HATIM

6. How did the “racial bribe” that resulted from Bacon’s Rebellion help to construct the idea of race in America?
7. According to Alexander, how did whites attempt to reconcile the ideals of democracy with the system of slavery?
8. Alexander writes, “The history of racial caste in the United States would end with the Civil War if the idea of race and racial difference had died when the institution of slavery was put to rest.” Explain this statement.

AUSTIN

9. How does Alexander explain the South’s “dilemma” after the Civil War?
10. What was the economic impact of emancipation on the South?
11. What was the role of contact under slavery? Why do you think Alexander is pointing to this in her discussion of the death of slavery?

MATTHEW-KYLE

12. What did the Southern white elite accomplish by passing the black codes?
13. Explain how vagrancy laws and convict laws worked in tandem to create another system of forced labor. How was this system of forced labor different from enslavement?
14. In your own words, summarize the achievements of the Reconstruction Era. Do you agree that Reconstruction had “the potential to seriously undermine, if not completely eradicate, the racial caste system in the South”?

ROAN

15. In the final paragraphs of the excerpt, Alexander foreshadows the next system of racial control that will emerge following Emancipation. What questions and predictions do you have moving forward in our reading?
16. Alexander writes, “The concept of race is a relatively recent development.” In light of this statement and the argument she makes to defend it, have your own ideas about race changed? How might our society change if this were accepted by all as fact?
17. Bacon’s Rebellion created a multiracial alliance. What issues or interests unified poor whites and enslaved Africans during the rebellion? Give an example of a similar alliance that exists today, or make the case that one is needed to address an issue in your community.

JOACHIN

18. How is “racial bribe” described in this excerpt? How can the notion of a racial bribe be useful in understanding contemporary social policy debates (i.e., healthcare, affirmative action)?
19. What is the fundamental contradiction of the United State’s founding discussed by Alexander in this excerpt? Does this contradiction still exist in U.S. society?

JIM CROW as a Form of Racialized Social Control

JAYDEN

1. What was the goal of the Southern “Redemption”? What were whites seeking? What were their tactics? What were the effects on Reconstruction?
2. How did the withdrawal of federal troops from the South after Reconstruction change what Alexander calls the “racial equilibrium”?
3. How did the harsh enforcement of vagrancy laws threaten to place African Americans into a new form of slavery? 

MICHAEL

4. How was the idea of white supremacy used as a racial bribe to gain support for segregation? What does Alexander mean when she writes that for poor whites the “racial bribe was primarily psychological”?
5. What were some of the areas of daily life where Jim Crow laws disenfranchised and discriminated against African Americans? Give an example of the harm done to an individual experiencing discrimination. Now consider the exponential harm and collective suffering caused by Jim Crow. As systems of racialized social control, what are the similarities between Jim Crow and slavery?
6. What is commonly understood to be the beginning and end of Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement? What issues does Alexander raise as problematic about these markers?

ZIAD

7. What two factors does Alexander identify as significant in bringing about a Northern consensus that Jim Crow needed to end?
8. What was the contradiction between Jim Crow segregation and the United States role in WWII? How did this contradiction undermine the United States’ criticisms of communism?
9. What Supreme Court decisions preceded Brown v. Board of Education and created a pattern of desegregation? Look back at question six. In what specific areas of daily life did these decisions provide protection from Jim Crow?

EVAN

10. How did Brown v. Board of Education differ from the Supreme Court’s previous desegregation rulings?
11. Describe Southern white opposition to Brown v. Board of Education and the impact of their resistance.
12. List some of the tactics civil rights activists used to counter white resistance to desegregation. What impact did their activism have on Jim Crow? Cite two specific accomplishments of the civil rights movement in permanently reversing segregation.

EMRAN

13. How did the civil rights movement evolve in its approach to bring about true equality? What opportunities for alliance building were created by this shift?
14. What are the “needs and constraints” racial caste had to conform to in the post-civil rights era? What are your predictions about how conservative whites re-created a racial order to meet their interests in light of the death of slavery and Jim Crow? 
15. While most people may know that the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery, fewer know that it still allowed for slavery, as well as indentured servitude, as a punishment for crime. Prior to reading the excerpt from The New Jim Crow, did you know that? How does this knowledge change your thinking about emancipation and more generally about race in the United States?

RAUL

16. Alexander writes that the racial bribe to poor whites during Jim Crow was merely “psychological” in that their actual quality of life was not made better by segregation. Describe a situation you’ve experienced or seen where a person or group was given a false sense of racial superiority. 
17. This chapter highlights the important role the Supreme Court played in dismantling Jim Crow. Has the court system of your lifetime tended to rule in ways that protect the rights of minorities and the disadvantaged? Give examples to support your view.

MASS INCARCERATION as a Form of Racialized Social Control

JOSE

1. How did conservatives depict civil rights activists and the federal courts that ruled in their favor during the 1950s and 1960s? Why?
2. What two causes does Alexander suggest for the rising crime rates in the 1960s? Why do you think these factors were generally ignored?
3. What conclusion did conservatives attempt to draw from the riots and uprisings of the 1960s? What explanation did civil rights activists give instead? Follow both arguments to their conclusion in terms of what ought to be done in response to the uprisings. What are the implications for racial hierarchy? 

VALERIY

4. How does Alexander characterize the motivation behind some blacks’ support for a “law and order” approach to fighting crime? What did the conservatives gain from their support? What did the black communities gain?
5. How does Alexander describe the racial politics that followed the civil rights movement? How did the Republican Party seize white resistance to desegregation?
6. Alexander writes, “a disproportionate share of the costs of integration and racial equality had been borne by lower- and lower-middle-class whites, who were suddenly forced to compete on equal terms with blacks for jobs and status and who lived in neighborhoods adjoining black ghettos.” How did the conservative “law and order” rhetoric provide a new racial bribe to lower- and lower-middle-class whites? How did this wedge impact the Democratic Party?

ARIS

7. Alexander points to Reagan’s presidency as the full development of the Republican revolution and what she later refers to as the “Age of Colorblindness.” According to her analysis, how did racial discourse adapt to the needs and demands of this period?
8. At the time the War on Drugs was launched, less than 2 percent of the American public viewed drugs as the most important issue facing the nation. What steps did the Reagan administration take to justify and garner support for the “war”?
9. What main factors contributed to the destabilization of inner-cites in the 1980s? Where did the War on Drugs fit into this reality?

DENNIES

10. Why do you think Alexander finds it so significant to note the beginning of the War on Drugs preceded the start of the crack epidemic?
11. List five examples of federal action taken under President Reagan once the crack epidemic became a public concern.
12. How did President George H. W. Bush continue the racialized “crackdown on crime” and the War on Drugs while in office?

IVAN

13. What happened to the War on Drugs and its racial agenda when Democratic President Bill Clinton took office?

14. This excerpt ends with Alexander writing that the New Jim Crow had been born. Based on what you have read so far, why do you think she’s naming the phenomenon of mass incarceration this way?
15. How does Alexander compare conservative and liberal views on poverty? Do either of these opinions reflect your own? What about your family? Explain.

RICHARD

16. How do you think the War on Drugs has affected your generation? Do you think your response is influenced by your race and your family’s socioeconomic class? Explain.
17. Do you hear and see stereotypes today similar to the ones mentioned in this excerpt, such as “welfare queens,” “crack babies” and “gangbangers”? If so, where do they appear? What are some present-day ways of sending racialized messages and stereotypes about people of color without using explicitly racial language?

Signal Phrase Worksheets

https://www.plattsburgh.edu/files/2/files/Signal%20Phrases.pdf

https://www.whiteriverswmd.org/sites/default/files/content/u18/4j.%20signal-phrases%20copy.pdf

Watch 13th on Netflix

If you missed class on Thursday and you have access to a Netflix account, make sure you watch the film "13th" by next class on Tuesday in addition to the readings I posted on Thursday (see the post below).

New Jim Crow Readings

Print Out and READ the following 4 articles by class on Monday 10/15. There will be a quiz at the start of Tuesday's class so make sure you are on time and make sure you have done the readings!

https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/Introduction.pdf

https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/Slavery%20as%20a%20Form%20of%20Racialized%20Social%20Control.pdf

https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/Jim%20Crow%20as%20a%20Form%20of%20Racialized%20Social%20Control.pdf

https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/Mass%20Incarceration%20as%20a%20Form%20of%20Racialized%20Social%20Control.pdf

LIBRARY ORIENTATION

Class on Tuesday 10-9-18 meets in the Library Room E-101B (Computer lab to the left when you walk into the library) at 8am sharp for library orientation. Do NOT be late and make sure you participate and ask the librarian questions. Participation in the library orientation is part of your grade.

Essay 1 Assignment (NEW DUE DATE)

In the documentary film The Central Park Five we are told the story of the arrest, trial and conviction of five black and Hispanic teens in New York City in the late 80s for crimes they did not commit. Write an argumentative essay in response to one of these three prompts :

1. How is the Central Park jogger case exemplary of systemic oppression of people of color? Make sure that your discussion is not just limited to the NYPD, but to the role of prosecutors and defense lawyers as well.

2. Examine media coverage of the Central Park jogger case. What role did sensationalist media coverage play in the fate of the Central Park Five? Make sure that your discussion is not just limited to their arrest, trial and conviction, but to coverage of their exoneration as well.

3.At the end of the film, historian Craig Steven Wilder says, "I want us to remember what happened that day and be horrified by ourselves because it really is a mirror on our society. And rather than tying it up in a bow and thinking that there was something that we can take away from it, and we’ll be better people, I think what we really need to realize is that we’re not very good people. And we’re often not." How is the story of the Central Park Five a mirror on our society? What does it say about us, the public at large? To what extent are we responsible for what happened to The Five?

YOUR ESSAY MUST

Be submitted in class on Thursday October 11th

Be at least 600 words in length.

Include an intro with a clear thesis statement, at least 3 body paragraphs and a conclusion. More than 3 body paragraphs is perfectly OK.

Be well-organized and developed with supporting details, using the techniques and types of evidence we have discussed in class.

Be proofread for grammar, sentence and other language errors.

Include references (quotes and/or paraphrases) to the film. You may make references to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Letter to My Son” but doing so is optional. You do not need to do any outside research for this essay, but if you do include evidence from other sources, then you must cite them appropriately and include them in a Works Cited page. Works Cited page is not required if all you use is the film and Coates.

NOT be a summary of your sources , but rather, a presentation of YOUR ARGUMENT and YOUR THINKING with support from the sources. Do not use any sources excessively.

Be in the Proper Format  --- DOUBLE SPACED!

Include a proper heading and title. NO COVER PAGES or IMAGES.

Be in correct MLA format, including in-text citations.

Be ORIGINAL and NOT plagiarized.

NOTE: I WILL NOT BE PROVIDING FEEDBACK ON GRAMMAR IN ORDER TO  FOCUS ON YOUR CONTENT. HOWEVER, LANGUAGE CLARITY IS PART OF YOUR GRADE, SO MAKE SURE YOU PROOFREAD CAREFULLY FOR GRAMMAR AND LANGUAGE ERRORS BEFORE SUBMITTING THIS ESSAY.