NAME:_____________________________________________

Write a response to ONE of the first two questions using

information and ideas from the book Stamped to support your
answer. Write a response to question #3 based on the essay
from The 1619 Project.

Option 1) The authors introduce the concept of “uplift suasion,” the idea that
white people would become less racist if they saw Black people lifting themselves
up – going to church, speaking “proper” English, and living like white people. How
did this assimilationist strategy perpetuate racist ideas? How does this strategy
persist today? 

“Make yourself small, make yourself unthreatening, make yourself the same,
make yourself safe, make yourself quiet, to make white people comfortable with
your experience” -pg 66

The belief that black people had to assimilate into white society to be accepted
was relevant then and now. The conditions of leading a “respectable life” were all
to fit black people into the mold of white people to “teach them how to be civil or
respectable, etc.” You have to change the way you act, talk, and present yourself
to be even simply respected or acknowledged as human. This idea is still very
present during today’s times. Black people have to assimilate into the white work
space to be even hired. Our society expects POC, especially black people to be
“professional” (in the sense of assimilation that strips persons of identity and
perpetuates racism) , but what is considered “professional” is what has been
accepted for so long which would be white people. A present day example of
assimilation would be changing your tone or your speech patterns, and changing
your hair for the work environment because natural hair, braided, dreaded hair
etc. Isn’t considered professional.

OR

Option 2) One of Kendi’s key arguments is that racist policies that serve the
interests of the powerful have driven the development of racist ideas and not the
other way around. How does this cause-effect show up in this section? (Hint, see
the section on Thomas Jefferson!)
Question #3) In Nikole Hannah-Jones’ essay, she writes, “[T]he year 1619 is as
foundational to the American story as 1776...black Americans, as much as those
men cast in alabaster in the nation’s capital, are this nation’s true ‘founding
fathers.’” What evidence does she provide for this claim? How have U.S. laws,
policies, and practices oppressed black Americans since the year 1619? How have
black Americans fought back against oppression and worked to build a better
society for all?

“He knew that our people’s contributions to building the richest and most
powerful nation in the world were indelible, that the United States simply would
not exist without us.” She talks about how without slavery and the grueling forced
labor enslaved black people endured for the majority of their lives built the
economy and some of the richest, powerful figure in America. Black people were
never considered equal nor human to white americans so there was no need for
legislation to consider black people in the smallest amount. Change grew slowly
over hundreds of years, through fighting, resilience, protest and action because of
Black americans fighting for the same rights as the white American.