SEPTEMBER 19 & 20

In-class Film Screening: “I am not your negro”, 2017

Some guiding questions for in-class film screening:

“What does the film suggest about the importance of identifying new kinds knowledge that scholars can focus on to help us be of use to under-served populations?

For example, in your responses to our guest speaker last week, several of you noted how certain affective elements in our guest’s presentation(s) resonated strongly with you. Several of you also suggested that our guest’s ‘positionality’ (in relation to her own background, and familial and social context, as well as in relation to us) had important analytical and performative significance. Furthermore, many of you also suggested that particular narrative techniques can yield desired outcomes more effectively. Each of you also pointed out the importance of ‘history’ and context, and the need to contest claims to knowledge from different perspectives. Finally, there were important critical questions about the ethics of knowing – what do we do with what we know? 

How does the film speak to any (or all) of these issues that have been raised by our class thus far? What are some of the ways in which the film helps us resolve some of these issues? What are some of the ways in which the film complicates these issues?”

REQUIRED READING:

Prologue and Chapter 1

Anderson, Carol
2016     White rage: The unspoken truth of our racial divide. New York: Bloomsbury Press.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING:

Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.