ASSIGNMENT #! – DUE 5/18/21
This assignment is based on your first reading/viewing assignments for the class:
1) “Antecedents of the Racial Worldview” by Audrey Smedley; and,
2) Part 1 of “Race: The Power of an Illusion” accessed through the AU library with the following link:
https://mediaspace.american.edu/media/Race+the+power+of+an+illusion+Episode+one+The+difference+between+us/1_bw9d68qz/97957511
Big Picture Question: What evidence do the readings and documentary provide indicating that race is a social construct?
You have the choice of responding in the sections listed below, or in an essay that takes elements listed below into account.
1) What evidence do we have that the race concept has not been around since the beginning of time? Briefly describe one concept of difference that (according to Smedley) people used to denote difference prior to the racial thinking about difference. How was that “pre-racial ingredient” characterized as both biological and cultural?
2) Provide one example from the documentary or reading of how a concept of difference transitioned from being “pre-racial” to racial. What social, economic and/or cultural changes were involved in the transition?
3) What evidence do the readings/documentaries provide that racial differences involve constructing non-existent relationships between biology and culture? Select one example from the reading or the documentary.
