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THINKING AND RE-THINKING:

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Culture - English in the World

2022-2023

Introduction

• visual material
• some historical facts

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Visual material

• name and describe

• What could the images refer to? Why?

THE
MAYFLOWER
MAID

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Thanksgiving
- Fourth Thursday of november
- 17th century
- An alliance between the pilgrims
and Wampanoag
- Had festivities together

Book
- 17th century
- Woman
- England – Mayflower  America
- Historical fiction

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The Pilgrim Fathers: departure of a puritan family for New

England
● 1856
● Charles Cope
● Mayflower
● Religious freedom
● Current United States of America
● Differences between communities

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Native Americans
 Indigenous people
 Use smoke signals
for long-distance
communication

Christopher Colombus
 ‘Discoverer of
America’
 1492
 Aquiline nose

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And we also promised the

Indians
All the Land in…

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MEANING
THE IMAGE DISCUSSES THE FACT
THAT THE ENGLISH COLONIZERS
PROMISED THE NATIVE
AMERICANS LAND WHEN THEY
CONQUERED THEIR TERRITORY.

THIS MAN IS WRITING THE

PROMISE ON TOILET PAPER, NOT
AN OFFICIAL DOCUMENT, WHICH
SUGGESTS THE PROMISE IS
INVALID. AFTER ALL, TOILET
PAPER IS USED TO WIPE YOUR
BOTTOM. IT ISN’T WORTH MUCH.

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1783 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris – A

treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Great
Britain is signed in Paris, ending the war and formally
granting the United States independence from Great Britain.

The war was not officially concluded, however, until the

agreement to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which was signed
in concert with treaties between Great Britain, France, and
Spain. The final treaty granted full independence and
recognized the borders of the new United States of
America.

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• North America after the Treaty of Paris

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My dream can be as
realistic/achievable
“the ideal that every citizen of the as Adolf Hitler’s
United States should have an equal dream The idea = falling apart
opportunity to achieve success and Not achievable for
prosperity through hard work, everybody
determination, and initiative.”

You are
the
stars!

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http://www.generations.com/201
5/09/21/the-evolution-of-the-

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american-dream/
5/01/2023

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Slacker Uprising

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• A cartoon about the progress of equality

involving Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln
and Barack Obama.

• Lincoln supported the abolishment of slavery

and recommended giving African-Americans
vote right.

• Martin Luther king fought for civil rights and

equality by means of peaceful protest.

• It was a historical moment when Barack Obama

was appointed the first African-American
president in history.

• It is a clear indicator that the influence of

important historical figures still remain present
today.

• We have come a long way but still have a long

way to go.

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• Birth Certificate
• Final Dinner

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MA1

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Dia 32

MA1 Mieke Achtergaele; 25/11/2020

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George Floyd memorial at Cup foods,

Minneapolis
• 46-year-old African-American man
• Murdered by white police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020
• Suspicion: using fake 20 dollar bill in grocery store Cup Foods
• Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost 10 minutes
• Convicted on 2 counts of murder and 1 count on manslaughter
• Caused global spread of protest against police violence
• “I can’t breathe”
• Black lives matter

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• History.com Editors. (2021, 25 juni). George Floyd is killed by a police officer,

igniting historic protests. HISTORY. Geraadpleegd op 4 oktober 2022, van
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-floyd-killed-by-police-officer
• Wikipedia contributors. (2022, 25 september). George Floyd. Wikipedia.
Geraadpleegd op 4 oktober 2022, van
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd
• Wikipedia contributors. (2020, 5 juni). File:George Floyd Tributes Outside Cup
Foods Minneapolis.jpg - Wikipedia. Geraadpleegd op 4 oktober 2022, van
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Floyd_Tributes_Outside_Cup_Foods_
Minneapolis.jpg
• Griffith, J. & Silva, D. (2021, 25 juni). Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years for
the murder of George Floyd. NBC News. Geraadpleegd op 4 oktober 2022, van
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/derek-chauvin-be-sentenced-
murder-death-george-floyd-n1272332

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Breonna Taylor
• 26 y/o African American
• Louisianna, Kentucky
• Shot on March 13 2020
• 3 policemen: Jonathan
Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and
Myles Cosgrove
• Drug investigation
• Kenneth Walker

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Karim Douïeb

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The Great Plains

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Source used in this presentation:

Presidential Elections Used to Be More Colorful. (2017, February 18th ). Metrocosm. Consulted on October 3rd 2022, from http://metrocosm.com/us-presidential-elections/

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Picture: a map of the United states with the voting results per state of the national presidential
elections from 1952 until 2012 (not every election year is included)
The United States election mostly exist of two well-known parties,
which is also very clear in the picture:
• Blue: Democratic party
• Red: Republican Party

! Notice the purple colour of the states Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
and Georgia in 1968. This was the last time a third party won an electoral vote.
In the past the states were less bound to a particular party. In the last six elections in this
picture, most states seem to vote for the same party every elections, only a few change.
=> That means that the winning party only wins with a small difference in
votes in comparison with the losing one. A victory like 1972 or 1984 is almost
unthinkable in present times.

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• Election of Joe Biden

and Kamala Harris in
2020
• Defeated Republican
President Donald
Trump
• Kamala = 1st female
vice president

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Death penalty in America

• Red states: allow death penalty
• Green states: prohibit death penalty
• Numbers in red boxes: number of people on death row
• Numbers in white boxes: numbers of executions

 Every state decides on its own laws

• Different ways of execution

• Up to the year 1900: mostly by hanging
• Up to the 50s: mostly by electrocution
• Since the 2000s: injection

 The way of execution became more

‘human’ and less horrible. The accused
doesn’t have to suffer anymore.

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https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/2020

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PICTURE
6.53
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Task Culture – chapter two
Liene Cornelis

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9/11 tragedy caused by Al Quaida

 4 airplanes hijacked

 Twin Towers, Pentagon

 New York, Manhattan, Washington,

Pennsylvania

 3000 killed, 24 still missing

Picture explanation: The people wanted to

enjoy the beautiful skyline of New York.
Instead they’re looking at a tragic destroyed
Manhattan in ashes and sorrow.

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• On this crowdy picture you can see burning buildings, staring people, an injured man, and
a river that divides two part of New York mainland. The river is called ‘the Hudson River’.
You could say that people from this side of the river, the Jersey side, stand still and gaze at
the burning buildings. They could tell their friends ‘I was there on 9/11 in 2001, I
witnessed.’ while they were not in the buildings.

• 9/11 in 2001? You weren’t born yet. Imagine the unimagable: two planes hit two buildings
in Manhattan NY. That’s a fact.

• In front of the picture you can see an injured man, carried away by another one. You could
say that these two men had no time to think or to consider what was going on. You might
think his leg was injured by one of the planes that hit the twin towers. But maybe he just
slipped on a banana peel and the pave caused a bleeding.

• And what about the boat on the river? Maybe these people weren’t staring at the dark
clouds, but just waiting for their boat to arrive.

• It provides you with multiple perspectives.

• As I introduces this picture as ‘crowdy’, what about the people that died in the towers?
When I tell you there were about 2600 deads, would this walk side be crowdy, or was it
just a minority in the picture? It teaches you that there are different ways to look at a
picture and you’d better not judge from just one point of view.

• Finally, we could discuss the two men in the front again. It’s not quite clear on the picture
but it looks like they have a darker skin color, I mean they are not typical white. The two
pilots who hit the towers were from Saudi Arabia with a darker skin color. Consider the
men in the front, helping and caring, maybe these men had the same nationality as the two
pilots? They could share the same culture. The pilots who were aiming to destroy humanity
in that kind of way, belong to a minority of people who have such intentions.
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• So remember that facts are black on white, they are not to be discussed. All the rest is,
depending on your point of view.

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Some historical facts

• What is Thanksgiving?

• Who are the Pilgrims?

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What is Thanksgiving?
• Origin? °1621
• What? tradition
• Why? Pilgrims wanted to say "thank you"
to the Wampanoag tribe for helping
them survive their first winter
• When? 4th Thursday of November

"We're not Indians" in Easy Going Autumn 2001, p. 4-5

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Who are the Pilgrims?

• Pilgrim Fathers = the early settlers
• 17th and 18th Century: °permanent settlements along the east
coast
• for profit and for religious freedom
• English Puritans established settlements in the north-eastern
region

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Facts and figures about the

colonies
• Jamestown, Virginia = 1st English colony in the New World.
Financed by a London company

• Pilgrim Fathers arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the

'Mayflower‘ in 1620

• Signed the 'Mayflower Compact' (1620) = blueprint for °'civil

Body Politic‘ (principles of tolerance and liberty for the
government of a new colony)

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Facts and figures about

the colonies (2)
• by 1775: 13 English colonies
spread along the Atlantic
seaboard

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Facts and figures about the

colonies (3)
• inhabited mainly by British colonists

• July 4, 1776: colonies declared themselves independent of

Great Britain

• now = Independence Day

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Cultural differences and

national identity
• introductory questions
• reflections by 'American citizens' and 'non-Americans' or
'others‘
• the importance of equality and liberty in the Declaration of
Independence
• Migration and minorities

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Introductory questions
• Try to define

✓ national identity
✓ a nation
✓ a community
✓ minority
✓ multiculturalism
✓ political correctness

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Introductory definitions
❑ national identity:

identity connected with a particular nation;

shared by a whole nation

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Introductory definitions (2)

❑ a nation:

- a country considered as a group of people with the same

language, culture and history, who live in a particular area under
one government
- all the people in a country

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Introductory definitions (3)

❑ a community:

- all the people who live in a particular area, country, etc. when
talked about as a group
- a group of people who share the same religion, race, job, etc
- the feeling of sharing things and belonging to a group in the place
where you live
- a group of plants and animals growing or living in the same place
or environment

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Introductory definitions (4)

❑ a minority:

- the smaller part of a group; less than half of the people or things
in a large group
- a small group within a community or country that is different
because of race, religion, language, etc
- the state of being under the age at which you are legally an adult

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Introductory definitions (5)

❑ multiculturalism:

- the practice of giving importance to all cultures in a society

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Introductory definitions (6)

❑ political correctness:

the principle of avoiding language and behaviour that may

offend particular groups of people

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How would you define a typical

American?
• …
• …
• …
• …
• …

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Setting an example?

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Like father,

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Like son?

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What is the main difference

between an American and a
European?
• …
• …
• …
• …

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According to the Internet:

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A country with a reputation?

• How do other cultures portray the USA?
• Why?

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The USA’s doubtful

reputation

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What do the Americans say?

• ANTI-AMERICANISM IN EUROPE IS FUELED BY IGNORANCE

“Americanization gives other

countries a false sense of the
American way of life and, in
the end, causes hatred for the
U.S. and threats on our power
and freedom.”
(Frederick C. Millett)

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Ignorance?

Looking at
things from
another
perspective?

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Reflections by 'American
citizens' and 'non-Americans' or
'others'
• see texts p. 99-115

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(a) text p. 61
Paradise by Christopher Columbus

"This is the most beautiful island I have ever seen. There are some
large lakes, and around them is the most wonderful forest. The land
around the river is covered with trees. They are beautiful and green
and different from ours, each with flowers and fruit. The Indians'
houses are the most beautiful that I have ever seen. They are swept
and very clean inside, and the furniture is nicely arranged. The
evening air is sweet and fragrant. The mountains are high and
beautiful. This country is the best that language can describe." (1492)

"Gold is most excellent. Gold is a treasure! With gold, you can do

whatever you like in this world, even send souls to heaven." (1495)
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(b) Text by Doris Lessing

p. 62

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(b) Text by Doris Lessing (2)

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(c ) Text p. 63
America by West Side Story

I like to be in America,
Okay by me in America.
Ev'rything free in America.
For a small fee in America.

Buying on credit is so nice.

One look at us and they charge twice
I'd have my own washing-machine.
What will you have though to keep clean?

Skyscrapers bloom in America.

Have a lot soon in America.
Cadillacs zoom/industries boom in America.
Twelve in a room in America.

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(c ) Text p. 63 (2)
Lots of new housing with more space.
Lots of doors slamming in our face .
I'll get a terraced apartment.
Better get rid of your accent !

Life can be bright in America -

If you can fight in America.
Life is all right in America -
If you're all white in America.

Here you are free and you have pride -

Long as you stay on your own side.
Free to be anything you choose - 87
Free to wait tables and shine shoes .

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(c ) Text p. 63 (3)
Everywhere grime in America
Organized crime in America.
Terrible time in America.
You forget I'm in America;

I think I'll go back to San Juan.

I know a boat you can get on.
Everyone there will give big cheers!
Everyone there will have moved here .

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(d) Text p. 64 by
Ramachandra Guha (India)
"Over the years, I have often been struck by the dignity of labour in America, by the ease with
which high-ranking Americans carry their own loads, fix their own fences, and mow their own
lawns. This, it seems to me, is part of a wider absence of class distinctions. Indian intellectual
have tended to downplay these American achievements: the respect for the individual, the
remarkable social mobility, the searching scrutiny to which public officials and state agencies
are subjected. They only see the imperial power, the exploiter and the bully, the invader of
faraway lands and the manipulator of international organizations to serve the interests of the
American economy. [. . .]
On the world stage America is not a pretty sight. Even between its various wars of adventure,
its arrogance is on continuous display. The United States has disregarded strictures passed
on it by the International Court of Justice, and defaulted on its financial obligations to the
United Nations. It has violated the global climate change treaty, and the global biodiversity
treaty. It has not signed the agreement to abolish the production of landmines. The only
international treaties it signs and honours are those it can both draft and impose on other
countries, such as the agreement on Intellectual Property Rights.
The truth about America is that it is at once deeply democratic and instinctively imperialist." 89

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(e) text p. 65
Inaugural Address by Bill Clinton

January 20, 1997

My fellow citizens:

At this last presidential inauguration of the 20th century, let us lift our eyes toward
the challenges that await us in the next century. [. . .]

And what a century it has been. America became the world's mightiest industrial
power; saved the world from tyranny in two world wars and a long cold war; and time
and again, reached out across the globe to millions who, like us, longed for the
blessings of liberty.
Along the way, Americans produced a great middle class and security in old age; built
unrivaled centers of learning and opened public schools to all; split the atom and
explored the heavens; invented the computer and the microchip; and deepened the
wellspring of justice by making a revolution in civil rights for African Americans and
all minorities, and extending the circle of citizenship, opportunity and dignity to
women. [. . .] 90
Source: A Chronology of US Historical Documents / law.ou.edu/hist/

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(e) text p. 65 (2)

Now, for the third time, a new century is upon us, and another time
to choose. We began the 19th century with a choice, to spread our
nation from coast to coast. We began the 20th century with a
choice, to harness the Industrial Revolution to our values of free
enterprise, conservation, and human decency. Those choices made
all the difference. At the dawn of the 21st century a free people
must now choose to shape the forces of the Information Age and the
global society, to unleash the limitless potential of all our people,
and, yes, to form a more perfect union. [. . .]
The divide of race has been America's constant curse. And each new
wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice
and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political
conviction are no different. These forces have nearly destroyed our
nation in the past. They plague us still. They fuel the fanaticism of
terror. And they torment the lives of millions in fractured nations all 91
around the world. [. . .]

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(e) text p. 65 (3)

Our rich texture of racial, religious and political diversity will be a
Godsend in the 21st century. Great rewards will come to those who
can live together, learn together, work together, forge new ties that
bind together. [. . .]

Thirty-four years ago, the man whose life we celebrate today spoke
to us down there, at the other end of this Mall, in words that moved
the conscience of a nation. Like a prophet of old, he told of his dream
that one day America would rise up and treat all its citizens as equals
before the law and in the heart. Martin Luther King's dream was the
American Dream. His quest is our quest: the ceaseless striving to live
out our true creed. Our history has been built on such dreams and
labors. And by our dreams and labors we will redeem the promise of
America in the 21st century. [. . .] 92

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(e) text p. 65 (4)

Yes, let us build our bridge. A bridge wide enough and strong enough
for every American to cross over to a blessed land of new promise.
May those generations whose faces we cannot yet see, whose names
we may never know, say of us here that we led our beloved land into
a new century with the American Dream alive for all her children;
with the American promise of a more perfect union a reality for all
her people; with America's bright flame of freedom spreading
throughout all the world.
From the height of this place and the summit of this century, let us
go forth. May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead --
and always, always bless our America.

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(f) Text p. 66-67 by

Ariel Dorfman(Chile)

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(f) Text p. 66-67 by

Ariel Dorfman(Chile) (2)

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(f) Text p. 66-67 by

Ariel Dorfman(Chile) (3)

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(f) Text p. 66-67 by

Ariel Dorfman(Chile) (4)

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(g) Text p. 68-69 by

Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)

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(g) Text p. 68-69 by

Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) (2)

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(g) Text p. 68-69 by

Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) (3)

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(g) Text p. 68-69 by

Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) (4)

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(g) Text p. 68-69 by

Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) (5)

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The importance of equality and

liberty in the Declaration of
Independence
• see text p. 70-71

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Migration and minorities

A. migration

B. minorities
• Native Americans:
• Native American Teens - who are we (2.16)
• Hidden America - Children of the Plain
• Aborigines: see separate hand-out Australia

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Talking about ignorance

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Talking about ignorance (2)

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