Required Readings: Manuh, Takyiwaa and Esi Sutheereland-Addy. 2013. Africa in Contemporary Perspective: A Textbook for Undergrad Students. Legon-Accra, Ghana: Sub Saharan Publishers. (Preface, “The African Genius, pp. vi – xiii) Cabral, Amilcar. 1973. Return to the Source: Selected Speeches by Amilcar Cabral. Africa Information Service (Ed.) New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. (“National Liberation and Culture” pp. 39 – 56) Fields, Barbara. “Slavery, Race, and Ideology Muhammad, The Lawlessness of the Law As this is a methodology course, i.e., the study of the practice of how research is done for the creation of knowledge, the purpose of this paper is to analyze how and if racial justice is being practiced in this fictitious professor’s course. Write a paper using the readings from Module I to critique the fictitious teaching plans this fictitious faculty member has for their class. Six of the rows of the course schedule have been highlighted in blue in the left-most box. Pick at least one of the examples of the readings in one of these rows to include in your paper. Racial Justice Critique of Systems of Knowledge The purpose of this paper is to analyze how and if racial justice is being practiced in a fictitious course. Most college courses are based on the presentation of knowledge from materials that have been generated from research. As this is a methodology course, i.e., the study of the practice of how research is done for the creation of knowledge, this essay represents a critique of a system of knowledge. In our course we have been discussing the critical race and ethnic studies (CRES) framework that is being used to understand the world in which we live. The CRES framework has been adopted by many scholars due to its ability to explain the racial order in the global system in which we live; the lived experiences of people who have been racially and/or ethnically marginalized and minoritized in this global system; and the significance of the creation of all racial and ethnic groupings. As with all conceptual frameworks, the CRES framework identifies elements of peoples’ lived experiences that support the logic of the framework. For example, the CRES framework identifies the following elements as important: Peoples’ position in the racial hierarchies, i.e. White, Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Latino/a; The racial history of the places in which racially and/or ethnically marginalized people live; The history of the part of the world from which people can trace their heritage, i.e., Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Oceania; The institutions or other social structures shaping the status of racially and/or ethnically marginalized people, i.e. slavery, colonialism, structures of migration, schools, prisons, employment sectors. The institutions or social conditions through which racially and/or ethnically marginalized people developed cultural expressions. Conceptual frameworks also use research tools that help them to highlight the lived experiences of racially and/or ethnically marginalized people, institutions, and systems. For example, such research tools include the following: In-depth interviews (e.g. structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, or open-ended interviews; Oral histories (e.g. stories passed on about families, communities, nations) Archival documents (e.g. letters, journals, government records, business records, news stories) Databases (e.g., slavery databases, government databases [i.e. census]) Textual analysis of cultural expressions (e.g. Films, music, artwork, novels) Apply the CRES framework to your analysis of this fictitious course. To do this analysis you should ask yourself some of the following questions: In the texts presented in this course for students to read, does this course incorporate a global perspective or is the course taking a Eurocentric perspective? In the texts presented in this course for students to read, does this course incorporate a perspective that reveals the intersecting nature of people’s identities? In the texts presented in this course for students to read, do the texts elevate the voices of those who have been racially or ethnically marginalized? If the course elevates the voices of those who have been racially and/or ethnically marginalized, does the type of materials the faculty person selected to give voice to the previously voiceless allow for this to happen; In the materials the faculty person selected to give voice to those who have been racially and/or ethnically marginalized, are the cultural representations of the people whose lives have been racially and/or ethnically marginalized a full representative of their cultures; Rubric Write a 3-5-page paper using the readings from Module I to present a critique of the fictitious teaching plans. Six of the rows of the course schedule have been highlighted in blue in the left-most box; these sections focus on texts or materials related to people who have been racially and/or ethnically marginalized. I ask you to draw your attention to these sections, in particular, as you apply the CRES framework to analyzing the course. In order to do well on this paper, you need to do the following: Develop a clear, concise, and straightforward thesis statement that is presented in the first paragraph of the essay. Support the points you made in the thesis statement with arguments informed by the required readings*, class lectures, films/documentaries, and data from sites where you found supporting information. The quantity of support will be measured as per labor grading No fewer than two of the readings should be included The quality of support will be measured This requires an accurate/fair interpretation of the reading Make your essay clear enough for a reader to understand with one reading. Include adequate paragraphing and transition sentences Clear sentences Accurate mechanics: grammar, spelling, punctuation, neatness. Try and have some of these words in there toopnly some: 1.Racial CapitalismLinks to an external site. – the idea that racialized exploitation and capital accumulation are mutually constitutive. Racially minoritized and economically deprived groups face capitalist and racist systems that continue to devalue and harm their lives. ColonialismLinks to an external site. – the domination of people or area by a foreign state or nation: the practice of extending and maintaining a nation’s political and economic control over another area or peopleLinks to an external site. Wars of ConquestLinks to an external site. – a military conflict where one state, nation or people conquers or attempts to conquer another. EmpireLinks to an external site. – an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority. ErasureLinks to an external site. – the practice of collective indifference that renders certain people and groups invisible. An example of erasure would be when the British took over India and erased many parts of their culture and society Racial FormationLinks to an external site. – racial formation highlights the way that race is socially constructed. It is the sociohistorical process by which racial identities are created, lived out, transformed and destroyed DispossessionLinks to an external site. – the action of depriving someone of land, property, or other possessions SettlerismLinks to an external site. – Settler colonialism is a distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that, over time, develops a distinctive identity and sovereignty. Settler colonial states include Canada, the United States, Australia, and South Africa. IntersectionalityLinks to an external site. – the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Social Construction of RaceLinks to an external site. – physical variations have no meaning except for the social ones we put on them. People classify others based on physical, geographic, and cultural cues. ObjectivityLinks to an external site. – lack of bias, judgment or prejudice. EpistemologyLinks to an external site. – It is the theory of knowledge. The study of how we know what we know. It is concerned with the mind’s relation to reality. What is it for this relation to be one of knowledge? Do we know things? And if we do, how and when do we know things
