Homework Due 10/20/09 (considered on-time up until midnight)

Hello students:
I'm hoping that these blog posts, in conjunction with your classroom reading and discussions, are allowing you to obtain a better picture of the ways that the United States still has issues of slavery and oppression today. Below is the homework that is due Tuesday night:

1. Read the last two sections of the following link: http://www.asian-nation.org/racism.shtml.Those sections are entitled "The Formation of Solidarity," and "The Definition of Cruel and Unusual Punishment."

2. Respond to both pieces in one post of 100 words, just as you did with the previous postings. Consider your thoughts, feelings, opinions, similarities to the Gaines text, connections to discussions, and parallels to other topics we've mentioned in the past.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
I know some of you have been bummed about missing tutorials for two weeks. Fear not! Tutorials will return the week of the 26th. In fact, we will hold them on the 26th and 28th as well as twice the following week. Project presentations will be pushed to the final week as well :).

Also, this upcoming week (the 19th-23rd) will go as follows:
Monday: Reading Gaines and projects in the lab
Tuesday: Reading Gaines and current events
Wednesday: Reading Gaines & Projects
Thursday: Reading Gaines & Current Events
Friday: Finish Gaines & Current Events

Due Friday, October 16, 2009

Hello, folks.
Mrs. Noyes came into my 3rd period class yesterday and encouraged us to read a poem. It is posted below. I want you to do a tad bit more reading than you have done with the other two blog posts, but you can finish the reading and writing within 30 minutes. Directions are also included below.

1. Read the poem below.
2. Read the sections of the following link entitled "Ethnic Competition Leads to Violence" and "License to Commit Murder=$3,700": http://www.asian-nation.org/racism.shtml
3. In 100 words or more connect the poem to the Gaines text we are reading in class and the text about injustice against Asian Americans.
4. You're awesome!


Poem:

"If We Must Die"

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Source: Claude McKay, “If We Must Die,” in Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922). Taken from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5130/

Reading Due 10/14/09 (I fixed the link)

1. Read the article by clicking on the following link:
http://ahmedismailibrahim.wordpress.com/2007/04/29/racism-against-hispanics-among-us-army-lines/

2. Respond to the article in about 100 words. Some things to consider: Was the commanding officer over-reacting? Was the officer racist? Was the army racist? What do you propose the army should do? How would you respond if you were one of the soldiers? What do you think this situation says about the state of society?
* Keep in mind that you do not have to respond to all of these questions; they are just small prompting questions that will help you consider your response.

Homework 10/06/09

Directions:

1. Click on the following link:

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Mexico/Mexican-American-Discrimination/1072

2. Post a 100-word response that discusses your viewpoint and connections to other topics you've read about this year and in the past.

Homework for 10/05/09

Class, we are discussing different types of contemporary slavery. As a result, we will be reading articles that address types of discrimination and oppression that various groups are experiencing in the United States. The link below leads to an article about oppression of Hispanic/Latino people in the United States.

Directions:
1. Click on the following link: http://newsbusters.org/node/17442/print
2. Copy the whole article and paste it into a word document (if possible)
3. Print the article
4. Read it tonight for homework and annotate
5. When annotating, ask questions about the meaning, relate ideas to the MAIN IDEA, underline/highlight key words and words you don't know, write in definitions of new words, and make connections to slavery.