| Monday, June 21 |
| Introduction to Course: What is racial literacy, and why should it matter to me?; Watch Trevor Noah’s African American; and discuss racial experiences and share knowledge about racial history. Homework/Writing assignment 1—Write a list of 10 of your lived racial experiences. Read “Racial Colorblindness: Emergence, Practice, and Implications” and “Black Men and Public Space.” Essay 1: In class this week, you watched Trevor Noah: African American. After watching his comedy special, it becomes obvious that throughout the course of your life you have been in environments where persons were not of the same race or ethnicity as yourself. Therefore, your task is to write a three-page essay about a particular situation from your life where you’ve been impacted by race relations or where you’ve been made aware of racial tensions or differences that existed (and may still exist). You need to explain what happened, why you think it happened, how it affected your life, and what you learned (if anything), or what you would do differently if given the same opportunity. Answering these questions should help you to create a strong, developable, and provable thesis. Lastly, whether echoed throughout your essay or in your last paragraph, your current view on race relations should be explained. Narrative Essay due Thursday, June 24 by 10 am. This is the only essay in which you do not have to cite any sources. |
| Tuesday, June 22 |
| Discuss “colorblindness” and its implications in educational spaces and beyond. Writing assignment 2 (in class): Journal about the ways in which we were indoctrinated into race and racialization. Homework— Read Teresa Guess (2006) – “The Social Construction of Whiteness: Racism by Intent, Racism by Consequence” Introduce 5 points of plot, narration, and point of view; review homework in relation to plot, narration, and point of view. |
| Thursday, June 24 |
| Break down Guess’ work and make sense of the ways in which we were socialized to understand and discuss race, as well as how we were indoctrinated into a racialized society. Homework/Writing Assignment 3: Write a 2 or 3-page essay that explains what Racial Literacy is, why it is important for you to develop your racial literacy, and provide concrete strategies for your racial literacy development. Due Monday, June 28 by 10 am |
| Friday, June 25 |
| Collectively discuss strategies for speaking about race in more intentional and meaningful ways and developing racial literacy in academic spaces and abroad. Introduce the Racial Literacy Development Model. Homework—Read Sylvia Wynter’s (1994) – “No Humans Involved: An Open Letter To My Colleagues” |
| Monday, June 28 |
| Break down Wynter’s work, and introduce Critical Discourse Analysis. Homework/Writing Assignment 4: Read How to do Critical Discourse Analysis, and write a 3-page Critical Discourse Analysis of America’s Face Mask Usage By Demographic and Why are Blacks Dying at Higher Rates of Covid? Critical Discourse Analysis Essay due Thursday, July 1 by 10am. Essay 2: One of the focuses of Wynter’s “No Humans Involved: An Open Letter To My Colleagues” was anti-Black police practices. While we have all been exposed to the anti-Black police practices in the deaths of George Floyd, Freddy Gray, India Kager, Geraldine Townsend, and the countless others, policing spaces are only one of many that have been racialized into anti behaviors. Write a 3-page essay that explains how the educational, legal, religious, tech, entertainment/media, or sports domain has been gendered or racialized, what are the implications of this genderdization or racialization, and what action – small or large, individual or collective – will you take to disrupt the inequities in the domain chosen. Please cite at least 2 class sources and 2 out of class sources. Essay 2 is due Monday by July 5 10am. |
| Tuesday, June 29 |
| Collectively apply CDA to Monday night’s readings. Homework — Read Ramesh Krishnamurthy’s (2013) — “Ethnic, Racial, and Tribal: The Language of Racism” on pp. 129 – 149. |
| Thursday, July 1 |
| Break down Krishnamurthy’s work and discuss the discourses we were indoctrinated into. Homework/Writing Assignment 5: Choose one of the following poems and produce a 2 or 3-page Critical Discourse Analysis of the poem: Ashley Davis and Oompa’s “Simon Says”; Aiya; Ephraim Nehemiah’s “Afrofuturistic Fairy God Being“; Denice Frohman’s “A Queer Girl’s Ode to the Piragüero“; and Maya’s “Straight people.” The essay is due on Monday, July 5 by 10am. |
| Friday, July 2 |
| Review the poems and discuss the implications of CDA beyond the course. Writing Assignment 6 (in class): Journal about the discourses we have been exposed to in academic spaces, such as meritocracy. Homework — Watch any movie of your choosing, and be prepared to summarize, discuss, and provide a CDA of your movie for Monday’s class. Read Derrick Bell’s “The Space Traders.” |
| Monday, July 5 |
| Introduction to De-Centering whiteness: What is De-Centering whiteness, and why am I asked to do it; how to de-center whiteness; Homework: Read Carol Shields, “Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass” and Jeff Hitchcock and Charlie Flinch’s (2015) “Decentering Whiteness.” Essay 3: Write a 3-page essay where you apply Critical Discourse Analysis to the Black Lives Matter Phenomenon. Please cite at least 2 works from class and 2 additional sources. The Critical Discourse Analysis Essay is due Monday, July 11 by 10 am. |
| Tuesday, July 6 |
| Centering Blackness Homework/Writing Assignment 7: Read part 1 of the Intuitionist. Write a 2 or 3-page essay as to how whiteness has manifested as the invisible norm in your academic and social experiences. Due Thursday, July 14 at 10 am. |
| Thursday, July 8 |
| Centering Latin X Persons and Worldviews. Homework: Read “LatinX was Used By 3% of Hispanics” and watch all six of These stories. |
| Friday, July 9 |
| Centering Indigenous Groups. Writing Assignment 8 (in class): Journal about what whiteness means to you both prior to and now during the course. Homework: Read at least one story from all nine parts of “Indigenous Myths and Legends” and part 2 of the Intuitionist. |
| Monday, July 12 |
| Class discussion on how ideas of racial literacy have served to maintain problematic worldviews, structures, paradigms, policy, and literature. Homework: Finish reading the Intuitionist. Essay 4: Write a 3-page essay where you reread your first narrative essay and apply Critical Discourse Analysis to your essay to display how your racial literacy has developed over the course of the semester, or apply Critical Discourse Analysis to the Intuitionist. This essay is due by Tuesday, July 20 at 10 am. |
| Tuesday, July 13 |
| Reflection on current racial literacy development and make meaning of how race is operationalized in the Intuitionist. Writing Assignment 9 (in class): Journal about personal racial literacy journeys; and make meaning how race is operationalized in the Intuitionist. Homework/Writing Assignment 10: Write a 2 or 3-page essay that explains a situation in which you have displayed racial literacy since the picture began, as well as a situation where you could or should have displayed more racial literacy, and what the implications of those experiences are beyond this course. Due Wednesday, July 21 at 10 am. |
| Thursday, July 15 |
| Class time to work on final projects. Homework: N/A |
| Friday, July 16 |
| Collectively creating a racial literacy project that extends beyond the classroom. Homework: N/A |
| Monday, July 19 |
| Group work and final presentations. Homework: N/A |
| Tuesday, July 20 |
| Final presentations. Class time to work on final projects. Homework: N/A |
| Thursday, July 22 |
| Class Celebration |
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