Pan African Studies 300OL
“Contemporary Issues in the African American Community”
Pan African Studies
Department
Spring
2004-2005AY
Ticket No. 14880
Johnie
H. Scott, M.A., M.F.A.
Time: Arranged
Associate Professor
Online Course
FOB Room 210
Spring Semester, 2004/2005 (818) 677-2289
3
Units, General Education Office Hrs.: By
Arrangement
Comparative Cultural
Studies;
Email
Section B/Multicultural Requirement
Description:
Prerequisite – Completion of the Lower-Division writing requirement. An in-depth exploration of the social, political, cultural and economic issues in the African American community accomplished through the Distance Learning methodology. Provides insight on the extent to which these issues affect the Black individual and family in their interaction with the majority American society. This particular Pan African Studies section offering of “Contemporary Issues in the African American Community” makes extensive use of the latest cutting edge information technology (i.e., the Internet, email, WebCT, and various software applications) and is student-centered with a Computer Information systems-driven format..
Textbooks:
Required:
1)
Cose, Ellis, The
Envy of the World: On Being A Black Man in
2)
Delpit, Lisa and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts On Language
and Culture in the Classroom, The New Press,
3) Hallinan, Joseph, Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, Random House, New York/NY:2001.
4)
Hayden, Tom, Street Wars: Gangs and the Future of
Violence, The New Press,
5) Mosley, Walter, et al, , Black Genius: African American Solutions to African American Problems, W.W. Norton, New York, NY/1999;
6)
Pinkney, Alphonso, Black Americans/Fifth Edition,
Prentice Hall,
7)
Sheley, Joseph and James D.
Wright, In The Line of
Fire: Youth, Guns, and Violence in Urban
Strongly
Recommended:
8)
Gibaldi, Joseph, The MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers/Sixth Edition, published by the Modern Language Assn. Of
9)
Kelley, Norman, The
Head Negro In Charge Syndrome: The Dead End of Black Politics – A Controversial
Critique of Black Politics and Intellectual Leadership In
Important
Note:
Books for this course can be ordered for express delivery from the CSUN Matador Bookstore – (818) 677-2913 -- located on the Northridge campus. Those supplemental readings listed for either the Los Angeles Times or LA Weekly can be obtained by visiting the WWW websites of the publications, going to the “Archives” for each newspapers and entering the title(s) of the articles, then retrieving the same (Note that for the Los Angeles Times, articles older than 14 days may be obtained for a nominal sum payable to the newspaper – Professor Scott)
Requirements:
First of all is that every
student enrolling in this course must have direct access to a PC at all times.
This includes making provision for access to backup PCs in the event that the
one a student may own is not functioning. In this class (and similar Distance
Learning classes where the primary instrument is the information technology),
there is a ZERO TOLERANCE policy for “late” submissions;
Each week begins with “Word Up!” – an in-depth observation by the course professor on an issue of importance to Black America drawn from the syndicated column “Not On My Watch” written by the professor and published in The WAVE Newspapers with this being the oldest and largest African-American owned-and-operated newspaper in the western United States. All students are required to read these columns which set the tone and theme each week for the course. Those statements are found as links for each week of the course and are directly accessible to the students as they go to the course syllabus. These are to be treated with the same seriousness and reference as the required textbooks for the course as they are, in effect, the “course lectures” by the professor.
Lastly, students are given ample time to complete the assignments provided they practice good time and study area management. Distance learning courses require the type of student who is highly independent and self-motivated. That observation is certainly true for this course. The student will make note that the course grows out of a special program designed by California State University, Northridge which has enabled this professor to be part of a core faculty group at the campus in being the first to provide online courses to the general student body with this representing the first such course offered by the Pan African Studies Department. In that respect, it also constitutes the first online course offered in the nation by a Pan African Studies Department.
a) Examinations: there are the Midterm and Final Course Examinations. Both are essay-format. For the Midterm, students respond to a series of questions posted on-line by the instructor that are based upon the essays in Alphonso Pinkney’s Black Americans/Fifth Edition, Walter Mosley’s Black Genius: African American Solutions to African American Problems and Lisa Delpit’s seminal work The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts On Language and Culture in the Classroom along with the feature films and documentaries viewed as part of class instruction, supplemental readings and the Word Up! Weekly lectures by the course instructor. Students will have two weeks in which to complete the Midterm Examination while answering the questions. The Midterm Examination is to be written using large Blue Books and then either (a) brought to the PAS Department Main Office at CSUN in the Faculty Office Building, Room 221, by the prescribed deadline or (b) sent via the US Post Office Overnight Express Mail or through a carrier (e.g., Federal Express, UPS) with the student making certain that, in any case, the examination has the deadline postmarked as no “late” examinations will be accepted – No exceptions! The Final Examination is an Exit Essay comprised of one question posted to the class on email. Students, in responding, must use Microsoft Word and send the Exit Essay back as an attachment. The Exit is posted for 12 hours in which time the student is to respond, submitting by the stated deadline. No “late” exit essay exams will be accepted for grading. The two examinations are averaged together in establishing the first primary grade component;
b)
Film Evaluations: Each student must
have an email address and computer access. This access is crucial in that a key
component of this Pan African Studies “Contemporary Issues” class are a
combination of fourteen (14) feature films and documentaries that students view and
then post formal evaluations on. The film evaluations are sent via email
to the instructor at the time noted in the syllabus or directed by the
instructor. These evaluations are based upon videotapes of feature films
and documentaries available at major video rental outlets (i.e., Blockbuster,
Tower, etcetera) viewed by the student at the instructor’s direction. Those
videos available in the Oviatt Library’s
c) Chat ‘N Chew: Each student is assigned to one of the four “Discussion Rooms” in the Chat ‘N Chew Forum. There are six scheduled "Chats," but each student participates in only one. Four of the Chats, i.e., Chat #1/Chat #4 and Chat #3/Chat#5, will take place in the same Chat room albeit on different dates. For the semester, the student participates in this virtual classroom meeting with the course instructor (for the record, each student will be assigned to a specific Chat Room and Topic by the instructor in assuring opportunity for dialogic interchange with other class members ). Each Chat ‘n Chew Forum takes place on a Saturday afternoon, running for 90 minutes from 1:00pm-2:30pm and participation is mandatory. All students enrolled are expected to participate in their assigned Forum in responding to the issues being put forth. It is expected that students will have completed any necessary reading and/or viewing of films prior to the actual discussions. The student receives up to 4.0 points for participating in these discussions, for a total possible 4.0 points maximum (Read: 4.0 points is equivalent to an “A” for with Chat ‘N Chew representing the third primary grade component. The instructor’s assessment of points will be based on the seriousness, reflection and quality of the student participation;
d) Rap Time (Bulletin Board): For each week of the course up through “Review Week,” students will have the opportunity to “rap” with one another in this setting which is much like a Chat Room. The exception is that the instructor will post one topic each week taken from today’s headlines where Black American is concerned for dialogue that the students in the course can respond directly to. “Rap Time” provides the student with an opportunity to post a first response to a discussion prompt provided by the course instructor with several of these drawn from the class having read Black Genius, Black Americans, The Skin That We Speak or Street Wars. This first posting in direct response to the course instructor’s question is valued at up to 2.0 points. The student then receives up to 1.0 points per reply to the postings made on the same prompt by two other students for a total of 4.0 points per “Rap Time.” There are four (4) of these “Rap Times” sessions during the term. Student have three full weeks per Rap Time in which to give their own best thinking on a given issue. Rap Time constitutes the fourth primary grade component in the course; and lastly
e) Contemporary Issues Case Study: This is the one formal writing assignment. The student develops a topic based on reading and research related to Ellis Cose’s The Envy of the World: On Being A Black Man in America, Tom Hayden’s Street Wars: Gangs and the Future of Violence, or Sheley’s In The Line of Fire: Youth, Guns and Violence in Urban America in comparison/contrast to the major issues raised in Joseph Hallinan’s Going Up The River: Travels in a Prison Nation. This paper is to be at least 2,000 typewritten words, double-spaced and written according to Modern Language Association guidelines. It is to contain no less than 15 citations done according to MLA guidelines and have a “Works Cited” section with no less than five references including the aforementioned three texts. It is required that one of those references be that of the work done by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit The Sentencing Project. Make special note that any references (i.e., critical reviews, feature articles, etcetera) taken from the Internet must be of “Peer Review” quality. The Case Study represents the fifth and final grade factor for the course.
Grading
Scale:
Grading for the course is on a “Plus-Minus” basis as described in the 2004-2006 CSUN Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogue. The final grade is based upon the cumulative grade point averaged derived from the five (5) aforementioned primary grade factors: the film evaluations, the Midterm and Final Course Examinations, the Rap Times, the Chat, and the Case Study. Final grading shall be as follows:
“A” =
3.7-4.0;
“A-“ = 3.5-3.69;
“B+” =
3.3-3.49;
“B” =
3.0-3.29;
“B-“ = 2.7-2.99;
“C+” =
2.3-2.69;
“C” =
2.0-2.29;
“C-“ = 1.7-1.99;
“D+” =
1.3-1.69;
“D” =
1.0-1.29;
“D-“ = .7-.99;
and
“Fail” = 0.0-.69.
The grade of “Incomplete” shall only be issued to those students doing passing work (i.e., “C” or better) who are forced due to circumstances beyond their control – and subject to full documentation – miss submitting the Final Examination and/or Case Study -- No exceptions! As per the 2004-2006 CSUN Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogue, "CR," indicating "passed with credit," is given for work equivalent to C or better for undergraduate students and for work equivalent to B or better for postbaccalaureate and graduate students. NC, meaning "no credit," is given for work equivalent to : C-, D+, D, D-, or F for postbaccalaureate and graduate students. (56)
Course
Schedule
“The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as
responsible
is to examine
society and try to change it and to fight it – at
no matter what
risk. This is the only hope society has. This
is the only way
societies change.”
-- James
Baldwin
-- From “A Talk To Teachers”
Week One (January 31st - February 5th) A Litany
of Concerns: Where Do We Start?
One of the most famous pictures of all time
is what one has here with this photograph
Taken of the Little Rock Nine – those
courageous African American boys and girls shown here under National Guard protection – who
braved racist white mobs and death threats from the Ku Klux Klan to integrate
·
Theme: “Praxis: From Talkin’ the Talk to Walkin’ the
Walk”
·
Word Up! – “A Message to
Generations Yet Unborn: Black
·
Documentary: Black Is, Black Ain't
(1994, A Marlon Riggs Film – Title available for viewing at Oviatt Library's
IML)
·
Week Two (February 7th-February 12th) Black AIDS
·
Theme: “AIDS – the Undeclared War on People of
Color”
·
Word Up! – “AIDS – The
Undeclared War on the Poor” (WAVE Newspapers,
·
File Evaluation #1 Due – Black Is, Black
Ain't (By or before Friday, February 11th with extension through Wednesday, February 16th),
·
Reading: : “Black AIDS: ‘Our People, Our
Problem, Our Solution’ by Sara Catania, from LA
Weekly, June 1-7, 2001; “Losing Dorothy: If You’re Black and Poor in L.A.,
Silence Still Equals Death” by Sara Catania, LA
Weekly, June 1-7, 2001; “The New Face of AIDS: Residents of Carl Bean House,
Los Angeles, Winter 2001,” photographs by Anne Fishbein, LA Weekly, June 1-7, 2001 and “Sunday
Report: Life Is Forever Altered as an Epidemic Turns 20” by Mary McNamara, LA
Times, June 3, 2001; “AIDS After 20 Years: Hope for Vaccine Rises, but So Do
Fears of More Infections” by Rosie Mestel, LA
Times, June 4, 2001; “An Appreciation: The Heavy Hand of AIDS” by Mary
McNamara, LA Times, June 5, 2001 (Supplements: Students to obtain
articles by visiting the websites for these respective newspapers – Professor
Scott);Chapter Six, “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)” and “Major
Chronic Diseases: Morbidity and Mortality,” pgs. 133-147, from Black
Americans; and Chapter 1, “These Dead Don’t Count,” pgs. 1-17 from Street
Wars.
·
Rap Time #1: “Wake Up Call:
Week Three (February 14th - February 19th)
Sankofa: “Return to the Source”
·
Theme: “’I Ain’t African!’: Searching for
Identity”
·
Word Up! – “I Am a War
Baby” (WAVE Newspapers,
·
·
Film: Sankofa (Mypheduh Films, Produced and directed by Haile Gerima – Title available for viewing at Oviatt
Library’s IML; Email)
Week Four (February 21st - February 26th) Some Call It “The
Criminal (In)Justice System”
The 2002 Academy Award
"Best Feature Documentary" recipient, it took
a French filmmaker to tackle an American
subject, i.e., racial profiling,
and show in the blockbuster documentary Murder On A Sunday Morning as
painfully real and shocking today as any account to be culled out of the Deep
American South from the first half of the 20th
century.
·
Theme:
“Racial Profiling!: Walking While Black aka WWB’”
·
Word Up! – “Why Racial
Profiling Must Be Brought to an End” (WAVE Newspapers,
·
Film Evaluation #2 Due - Sankofa (By or before Friday, February 25th,
·
·
Film: Murder On A Sunday Morning
(2002)
·
Chat 'N Chew #1: "New Millennium
Holocaust: Black AIDS (Saturday, February 26th, 1:00pm-2:30pm)"
(Every student to have completed reading from Week 2 in joining this first full
class forum)
Week Five (February 28th -March 5th)
The Traditional Black Family
The late African American playwright and
journalist Lorraine Hansberry never dreamed
that her semi-autobiographical play A Raisin In The Sun would become the
most-performed American stage production of all-time while detailing that moment
in the
country’s history when Blacks started moving out of
the projects and tenements of the urban slums into the suburbs and mainstream of
national life. Hansberry anticipated
many developments in Black social, cultural,
political and economic life with play.
·
Theme: “Movin’ Up in
the World, or Not?”
·
Word Up! – “Do the Math!: The
Playing Field Is Not Level” (WAVE Newspapers,
·
Film Evaluation #3 Due – Murder On A
Sunday Morning (By or before Friday, March 4th,
·
Reading: Chapter Five, “Social Institutions,” pgs
105-126 from Black Americans; Chapter 4, “The 1998 Santa Monica-Culver
City Gang Truce,” 61-86 from Street Wars; and “As Serious as First Love:
Building Black Independent Institutions” by Haki Madhubuti aka Don Lee, pgs. 51-88 from Black
Genius.
·
Feature: A Raisin in the Sun (1961,
starring Sidney Poitier – Title available for viewing at Oviatt Library’s
IML)
·
Rap Time No. 2: “The Homeless and Black America: As with the Prison-Industrial Complex, African Americans Make Up the Majority of America's Homeless Population (Opens for posting as of 3:00pm, Monday, February 28th and closes at 9:00pm, Friday, March 18th. No postings will be counted in this Rap Time made after closing time.)” (For this Rap Time, students wil be expected to read materials related to homelessness including the White Paper "Structural Causes of Homelessness Among African Americans in America and Greater Richmond, Virgina" in preparing for this Rap Time.)
“That is our dilemma. After
the dreaming is done, there has to
be an awakening, and the
reality of our imperfections must be
addressed. Sooner or later the dreams
that enrapture us and
the tales that regale us must
make way for the truth which alone
can set us free. All of
us.”
-- C.
Eric Lincoln
From
“The American Dilemma in Perspective,”
Race, Religion and the
Continuing American Dilemma
Week Six (March 7th - March 12th) Broken Promises: So Many Children Left Behind
The husband and wife creative team of Alan
and Susan Raymond earned an
Academy Award for “Best Feature Documentary”
in producing I Am A Promise: The Children of
·
Theme: “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to
Waste!”
·
Word Up! – “We Won’t Abandon Our
Neighborhoods or Schools!” (WAVE Newspapers,
·
Film Evaluation #4 Due – A Raisin in
the Sun (By or before Friday, March 11th,
·
·
Documentary: I Am A Promise: The Children
of
·
Chat 'N Chew #2: "Of King-Drew Medical Center: Crusading Journalism or Demonization?" (Saturday, March 12th, 1:00pm-2:30pm)"
(Note: For this
Chat 'n Chew, all participants are required to have read the LA Times series on King/Drew and the Executive Summary of the Navigant Report – No
exceptions).
The Martin L. King,
Jr./Charles R. Drew Medical Center in
community with more than 3,000 employees and an annual
budget of more than $300 million that is now in
danger of being lost due to serious changes of
incompetence and negligence.
Week Seven (March 14th - March 19th)
Saving the Children
·
Theme: “The
·
Word Up! – “When Is It Ever
the
·
Film Evaluation #5 Due – I Am a
Promise: The Children of
·
·
Feature Film: Four Little Girls
(1998 Academy Award-Nominee for Best Feature Documentary, A Spike Lee
Joint)
·
Chat 'N Chew #3: "On the Death of Affirmative Action (Saturday, March 19th, 1:00pm-2:30pm)"
(Note: For this
Chat 'n Chew, all participants are required to have read Chapter Ten, "The
Demise of Affirmative Action," pgs. 225-247 from Black Americans – No
exceptions).
Nominated for a “Best
Feature Documentary” Academy Award (SpikeLee’s only
film to be so honored), 4 Little
Girls tells of a page from
American political history
than can never be forgotten.
Week Eight (March 28th - April 2nd)
“Who’s at the Door?: The Midnight Caller
Now rightfully assuming its place amongst the
great American exposes of corruption and
deceit where youth is concerned, Hoop Dreams stands out as a
documentary that shows
how life can be so much more engrossing that
fiction when the subject happens to be
the pursuit of the American Dream by people of
color.
·
Theme: “We Need to Watch What We’re Selling to Our Teens!”
·
Word Up! – “A Knocking at
·
Midterm Examination (To be posted on Monday, March 28th, as
of
·
Film Evaluation #6 Due – Four Little
Girls
(By or before Friday, April 1st,
·
Screening: Hoop Dreams
(1994, A film by Steve James,
Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert. To be obtained at your local video
store)
·
·
Rap Time #3: "No Longer a Safe
Haven: The Endangered Schoolyard (Opens for posting as of 3:00pm, Monday, March 28th and closes at 9:00pm, Sunday, April 24th.)" (The prerequisite for participating in
this "Rap Time" will be all students having downloaded and read report Crime
and Violence in the Schools: Final Report by the National Center for
Education Statistics)
Week Nine (April 4th - April 9th)
Of
This cover says it all in pumping up public
interest in Spike Lee melodrama Jungle
Fever, film that unearthed yet another American social taboo with
interracial dating many years after
“Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?”
·
Theme: “Black Men, White Women”
·
Word Up! – “There Is a Lesson
in ‘Children of
·
Film Evaluation #7 Due (Hoop Dreams ,
by or before Saturday, April 9th,
·
·
Feature Film: Jungle Fever
(1991, A
Spike Lee Joint)
Week Ten (April 11th - April 16th) Facing Up to an Unyielding
Homophobia
Courtney Vance is shown here in one of great
roles from an outstanding career as he plays defense attorney fighting for young
Black male on trial for fighting
back against mob of whites bent on hate crime in
the thought-provoking feature Blind
Faith (1998) that opens doors wide on Black American
taboo.
·
Theme: “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and
Steve! The Untold Strictures Concerning Black Homosexuality”
·
Word Up! – “Reflections on
Bullworth and Presidential Politics 2000”
(WAVE Newspapers,
·
Film Evaluation #8 Due – Jungle
Fever (By or before Friday, April 15th,
·
Feature Film: Blind Faith
(1998, A
Showtime Third Row Center Film produced by Nick Grillo
and directed by Ernest Dickerson. Obtain this at your local video outlet)
·
Week Eleven (April 18th - April 23rd)
The Fire This Time
One of the most important films ever made
describing American culture, race
relations, and the inner workings of Black America
describes Do The Right Thing
–
the open-ended Spike Lee opus that is as
relevant today as it was 15 years ago.
Filmmaker Lee, right, shown in scene from the
movie with Ossie Davis, a true
legend of Black filmmaking.
·
Theme: “You were expected to make peace with
mediocrity.” – James Baldwin, from The
Fire Next Time
·
Word Up! – “Of
·
Midterm Examination Due (As of
·
Film Evaluation #9 Due – Blind Faith
(By or before
Friday, April 22nd,
·
Reading: “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My
Nephew on the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation”
by James Baldwin first published in The Progressive, December 1962 and
published by the Dial Press, 1963 in The Fire Next Time;
Chapter 8, “Restoring Community Action,” pgs. 257-309 from Street
Wars.
·
Feature Film: Do The Right Thing
(1989, A Spike Lee Joint)
·
Chat 'N Chew #4: "Ebonics Revisited:
Or the Inside Story of America's Failure in Educating African American Kids in
Inner-City Schools (Saturday, April 23rd, 1:00pm-2:30pm)" (Note: Prerequisites for this Discussion Forum will
be students having read essay "My Dungeon Shook" and Part 2, "Language in the Classrom," Chapters 7-8, pgs. 107-141 from The Skin That
We Speak; with
this Discussion for Saturday, 1:00pm-2:30pm)
Week Twelve (April 25th - April 30th)
“No Justice, No Peace!”
This photograph taken at site of urban
upheaval in one of
speaks to the breakdown in law and order as well as
the widening distance
between Black America and the criminal justice
system in trend that accelerated
during 1990s in aftermath of Simpson Trial and
urban unrest across
·
Theme: “Black
·
Word Up! – “Reflections on
the LAPD’s Rampart Scandal” (WAVE Newspapers,
·
Film Evaluation #10 Due – Do the
Right Thing (By or before
·
Film: Training Day
(2001, Produced and Directed by Antoine Fuqua with Denzell Washington, Warner
Brothers Pictures. Obtain this at your local video store
outlet)
·
·
Final Rap Time #4 "In the Line of
Fire: Gun Volence in Black
·
Chat 'N Chew #5: "Mental Health: The Effect of Being in a Constant State of Rage on the Well-Being of Black Americans (Saturday, April 30th, 1:00pm-2:30pm)" (Note: Prerequisites for this Discussion Forum will
be students having read U.S. Surgeon General'sChapter Conclusions from Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General)
Denzel Washington’s
Academy Award-winning performance as crooked LAPD officer Alonzo Harris couldn’t
have come at a more telling time in
Week Thirteen (May 2nd - May 7th) When A Million Black
Men Marched
Responding to Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan’s call for a
“National Day of Atonement,” more than 1
million African American
Men traveled to
The world for the
now-historic Million Man March.
·
Theme: “In the Matter of the Million Man
March”
·
Word Up! – “Body Counts,
‘Walk-Ups’ and the NRA” (WAVE Newspapers ,
·
Film Evaluation #11 Due – Training
Day
(By or before Friday, May 6th,
·
Film: Get On The Bus
(1996, Columbia
Pictures, Produced and directed by Spike Lee)
·
Week Fourteen (May 9th - May 14th) No More Skeletons:
Child Abuse
Bishop T.D. Jakes shown here in poignant
scene from ground-breaking
feature film Woman Thou Art Loosed which
unearthed one of the major
skeletons tucked away for so many years in Black
America’s closet.
·
Theme: Facing Up to the Issues of Child
Physical and Sexual Abuse in The Home
·
Word Up! – “The Things We
Have in Common” (WAVE Newspapers,
·
Film Evaluation #12 Due – Get On The
Bus (By or before Friday, May 13th,
·
Screening: Woman Thou Art Loosed
(2004)
·
·
Screening: Redemption
(2004, starring Jamie Foxx as
·
Final Chat 'N Chew #6: "The Urban
Black Male: Street Soldier, Prisoner of War, or Tomorrow's Hope?(Saturday, May 14th, 1:00pm-2:30pm)" (Note:
Having completed viewing of Redemption starring Jamie Foxx as
Week 15 (May 16th - May 21st) Urban Black Men: Street
Soldiers or POWs?
1996 and, in the process, been nominated for
a Nobel Prize seven times – four times for the Peace Prize and
three
times for the Literature Prize. His life has
become the subject for Redemption (2004), a major HBO
motion picture
starring Jamie Foxx, center, as Williams while on the
right one finds
journalist/children’s advocate Barbara Cottman
Becnel who has become a major
advocate for Williams’ life.
·
Theme: “What Directions Lie Ahead for A Group Under Incarceration?”
·
Word Up! – “The Fire This Time”
(reprinted from The Stanford Magazine, 1994 CASE Silver Medal Award
for “Best Feature Story”)
·
Film Evaluation #13 Due – Woman Thou Art
Loosed (As of
·
Reading: Chapters 14-17 and the “Afterword” from Going Up The River: Travels in a Prison
Nation; and “Perfecting Our Democracy for
the Benefit of the Black World” by Randall Robinson , pgs. 291-311 from
Black
Genius.
Redemption as Foxx brought out qualities of former
street hood now a Death Row inmate and Nobel Prize
nominee.
Week Sixteen (May 23rd - May 28th)
The Case Study
“We should
heed (George) Orwell’s words in the discussions
of Black English. The grim naysayers of black potential are
the ones whose language is most
opprobrious. Those folk who
denigrate Black English without trying to
understand it speak
in bad faith. Those political critics who
obfuscate their role
in the economic suffering of the black
ghetto with political
chicanery are the real trouble. And those
financially secure
black folk who demean the users of Black
English without
working to get them better jobs, or to
make sure that the
future of the country’s poorest black
children is as bright
as their own children’s, speak a language
of moral hypocrisy.
If all of
this is standard, then perhaps we should give
Non-standard a
try.”
-- Michael Eric
Dyson
-- From Race
Rules: Navigating the Color Line, 1997
·
Contemporary Issues Exit Essay Examination (Posted Wednesday
morning, May 25th, at 10:00am and due as of that same Wednesday night, 11:00pm – to be sent as
Microsoft Word attachment only!!)
·
Contemporary Issues Case Study Due
(Hard copy due in Pan African Studies Main Office, Faculty Office Building Room
221, postmarked by or before Friday, May 27th,
