Defund Teaching About Slavery

Instructions

1619 Introduction Links to an external site.
Defund Teaching About Slavery? Links to an external site. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) Tries to Cancel the 1619 Project
Saving American History Act, 2020Links to an external site. (PDF of actual proposed bill)
Seeing White: Episode 2: How Race Was Made Links to an external site.

Seeing White: Episode 3: Rich Man’s Revolt Links to an external site.

YOU MUST cite your all your answers: newly-learned facts and quotes. Scroll down if you need a refresher on how to properly cite sources.
Papers which contain answers that are not cited will not be accepted.  It will be impossible to answer without consulting a source that requires citing.
No cheaters allowed here. >

Please answer the following questions in complete sentences

1619 Questions

1. What is the significance of the date, 1619? 
2. When Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Nikole Hannah Jones states that “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true.” What specifically does she mean?
3. Click through and read the 1619 Introduction.Links to an external site. There are many images and essays discussing the impact of slavery on many aspects of our modern world: from landscape to healthcare to pop music. Reflect on what you see here. Describe which of these categories holds your interest: explain why. 
4. Why is it important that we study the intersection between race and capitalism in our country’s origins?
5. What is the Saving American History Act of 2020? Explain why it exists. Include a quote from its “Findings.” 

Seeing White, How Race Was Made Questions

1.  In Seeing White, How Race Was Made, who is Nell Irving Painter? What book did she write? How does she explain the existence of the so-called “three races?”
2.  In Seeing White, How Race Was Made, who is Ibram X Kendi? What book did he write? Summarize his explanation for how racism was imported to the colonies from Britain. What does he mean when he says: “And of course, Blackness cannot really operate without whiteness.” 
3. In Seeing White, How Race Was Made, who is Chenjerai Kumanyika? What does he mean when he says: “…. race isn’t real biologically but it is very real as a way that society has been structured. The effects of race as a social construct are real. The reason we can’t stop talking about it is because we can predict wealth distribution, police killing, all kinds of other sort of life expectancy factors, health issues, based on race, access to schools, because society has been organized around a concept that is not biologically real.” Explain and give examples from the 1619 Introduction to support your point.
4. Critical Thinking Question:  In what ways is racism a product of exploitative economic systems, not of “hate” and “prejudice.”
5. Critical Thinking Question: Ta-Nehisi Coates writesLinks to an external site.: “Race is the child of racism, not the father.” What does this mean?

Seeing White, Rich Man’s Revolt Questions

1. In Seeing White, Rich Man’s Revolt, summarize what the authors say about the “social contract” of Cherokee and other indigenous tribes of North America.
2. In Seeing White, Rich Man’s Revolt, there is evidence about the Founders’ motivation for declaring independence from Britain which often gets left out of the standard narrative. Summarize the scholarship of Woody Holton including details about the Proclamation of 1763. 
3. In Seeing White, Rich Man’s Revolt, enslaved people at the time of the American Revolution and Lord Dunmore are discussed. Explain why they are significant.
4. In Seeing White, Rich Man’s Revolt, what are the differences between the first and the second drafts of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence?
5. Summative Critical Thinking: Based on the evidence presented in these podcasts, describe at least two things you learned about our nation’s founding that you did not know before. How does the newly learned information affect your understanding of the so-called “Founders.”