ASSIGNMENTS: JUN 17 – JUN 24

(DUE: 11:00 PM - THURSDAY JUN 24)

DISCUSSION BOARD QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean to say “I am 100 % Italian”? Explain the statement.

2. Is being white determined by race (biology: skin color, hair type, etc) or ethnicity (cultural heritage:
geographic origin such as Europe, Caucus mountains –Caucasian- etc.)? Or something else?

3. Why are some people racist? Is it a matter of biology (born as such or we have the natural tendency to
hate), psychology (...), sociology (mommy was one), history (...) or ?

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

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Please send your answers to: m.saatci@yahoo.com

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QUESTION # 1:
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Visit the website below and discuss the following questions (Name of the video is A CLASS DIVIDED
and it is available on Frontline.org website)
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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
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a. What is the connection between Jane Elliot’s “eyeism” and racism?

The connection between the two is that people aren’t racist from the day they are born, it is
something taught over time.
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b. What are the effects of her experiment in terms of students’ behavior and performance?
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They started to treat brown-eyed people and the blue-eyed people differently and would start to get
violent.
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c. What are the results of the experiment on adults?

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The results of the adult experiment were that blue-eyed people started getting frustrated because
they weren’t being treated properly. They got to see how it feels to be discriminated.
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d. Do you see any connection(s) between her experiment and the concept of “self fulfilling
prophecy?”

I see connections between her experiment and self-fulfilling prophecy during the adult
experiment because they didn’t hate someone cause of their eye color, they started getting
annoyed when they got to see who the person really was, and how they acted.

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 e. What do you think would happen if she continued with the experiment much longer and without
switching roles?
If she kept the experiment going without switching roles I think they experiment would’ve gotten worse
and blue-eyed people would’ve been hated.

QUESTION # 2:

Referring to the video link below answer the following (Name of the video is WHY ARE EUROPEANS
WHITE and it is available on youtube.com):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3eUP4-BlXI

a. List the external variables/factors that determine the chances of survival based on skin & eye color in
the surviving members of a population (internal one would be the melanin).

b. How does the matching of skin color and the sunlight in the environment enable survival or result in
the disappearance of members of human populations? (What biological processes play a role?)

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UV rays penetrate the skin to help the human body absorb vitamin D and grow stronger bones, that is why

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the sunlight helped them survive in those conditions.

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c. Does the video suggest single source for humans or multiple origins? (In other words, there are

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different races today and they were distinct and separate from the beginning?)
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The video states no one really knows before, but at some point, we were all the same color at one time.
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QUESTION # 3:
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Referring to the study of KKK by Ezekiel, answer the following:

a. What is their main ideology? What kind of ideas do they believe in with respect to God, good-
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evil, and racial-ethnic groups?

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Their ideology is that race is real, white is white, and black is black. They also believe that people
of color are civilization destroyers.
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b. What is the role of women in the movement?

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The role of women in the movement was to push the educational and social reforms, but with
extreme racism. They would also help their husbands and the rest of the clan members. Women
had no power roles, simply servants and nurturers.
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c. What do they believe about gays and lesbians?

They believe gays are sent by the Jewish community and the media to rape and undermine the
strength of the white race. They also feared gay black men would take advantage of some of the
members and rape them for hating each other.

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 d. What happens to new members in the “Targets” section?

Most new members came in only hating black people and not the Jews. They had to be taught
why the Jews are bad and why they should hate them.

e. What are some of the characteristics of the followers? What kind of family background do they
have?

Most of the members didn’t have a father figure to raise them, so they learned to hate. Also, the
neighbor hoods they grew up in weren’t full of white families anymore, and they didn’t like that.

f. What are the main ideas/beliefs/motives/fears of leaders and followers? What makes them get up
in the morning?

Leaders of the KKK movement are not leaders because they love being racist, they want to
influence other people and feel power, and they use racism as their tool to get what they want.

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g. In your view, what are the most shocking/interesting information in the reading?

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The most shocking part of this reading to me was the fact that they hate the Jews just as much,

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and maybe more than black people. When I read, they adapted Neo-Nazi ideologies it surprised

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me because I thought they only hated the black community.
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QUESTION # 4:
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Referring to the reading posted "Jefferson - Race" answer the following (In case you are wondering, it is
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the very same president - Jefferson- who wrote it):

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a. What reasons does Jefferson give for his suspicion that Africans were inferior to whites (In what ways
Africans are inferior to whites)?
His supision comes from them being able to require less sleep, they are brave and adventurous, and he
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states, “their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection.”

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b. What are the problems and weaknesses of his argument? Would you say he is confusing correlation
with causality (In other words, are his observations and conclusions scientifically accurate? Examples: "
They seem to require less sleep," "Their griefs are transient (temporary, short-lived)." What reasons,
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conditions surrounding Africans might be used to explain his "observations"?

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When I first read his statement about black people being able to sleep less didn’t make sense to me. Skin
color doesn’t represent how much sleep you get or don’t get, it is a result of how much energy the person
has and what they have been through.
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c. In today's world do people make similar "observations" and come to the same "conclusions" about
minorities and immigrants? Give an example or two (Think about some of the stereotypes about the
groups and offer an explanation). Example: When the Polish immigrants came to U.S. in large numbers
between 1870 and 1914, Americans believed that they were mostly stupid. In reality, these immigrants
were from rural-agricultural regions with little education, and cultural skills. They were doing manual
labor, railroads, mines, etc.

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 One stereotype I hear a lot to the Mexican/Latino community is “are you even a legal citizen?”
This stereotype makes people think all Mexicans are illegal immigrants and had to run across the
boarder to get here. That is not true at all because a lot of people with Mexican backgrounds
were born in the USA or they came over here legally.

Another stereotype about African Americans is that they are lazy, and don’t like to work. This is
not true at all, the skin color does not determine your work ethic, you do. Black people can be
some of the hardest working people, same as any other race. It all depends on the person.

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