Blog # 1: (300 words minimum, due by 4:35 Thursday, Sept 3rd): Write a statement of intention for the semester. This should cover the following: what you are most looking forward to learning and/or doing in this class, what obstacles you can foresee in doing well, what I can do as the instructor to most help you excel, how you plan to manage your time between each class and outside of school responsibilities, and what you hope to gain from this course.

Blog # 2: (300 words minimum, due by 4:35 Thursday, Sept 10th. Two comments due within 24 hours of blog due date)

Listen to “The Influence You Have” and read “Enemies” and write two responses, one critical and one personal. How does this podcast argue that the impact we have on others is often greater than we give it credit for? Explain the argument in a paragraph or two, using specific examples to support your description.

Think of a time when you said something to someone and found out later that it had a much greater influence than what you had initially thought. How did this happen, and what came out of it? If you can’t think of an example, try the reverse: write about a time when someone’s seemingly off-hand or casual remark impacted you significantly. What does this exercise tell you about the interplay between the self and others?

Blog # 3: 300 words minimum, due by 4:35, Thursday, Sept 17th. Two comments due within 24 hours of blog due date

Listen to “The Global Legacy of George Floyd” and read “won’t you celebrate with me” by lucille clifton (both links are in the weekly schedule) and write about what you think it was about George Floyd’s death that sparked so many global movements. What are the examples you found most surprising or inspiring from the podcast? Why do you think these groups of people in other societies connected to the BLM movement in the U.S. this summer? How can one society’s movements spur change in another? Provide an example not in this podcast and not about George Flloyd in which a movement began in one country and sparked a similar movement in another. Where, when, and why did this take place?

Blog # 4: 300 words minimum, due by 4:35, Thursday, Sept 24th. Two comments due within 24 hours of blog due date

Prompt 4: Discuss the idea of the individual and the society as it relates to the article, “To Fight the Coronavirus, You Need an Army” and the Podcast “Hotel Corona.”

What does the author of the New Yorker article describe as the largest problem in terms of caring for Covid-19 patients in Texas? How have individuals in Texas handled the pandemic and how has the medical community as a whole handled it so far? 

Other than medical professionals and politicians, how do citizens’ individual choices impact society in the time of a pandemic? How do the ideals of “freedom” and “independence” clash with the necessities of communal effort in a national crisis? How did these differences between individuals and subgroups of a population clash and come together in the Hotel Corona? What can we learn from the people staying in the Hotel Corona that might make our own lives and our society less difficult?

Blog # 5: (300 words minimum, due by 4:35 Thursday, Oct 8th. Two comments due within 24 hours of blog due date). Carefully read “Asian Americans are still caught in the trap of the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype. And it Creates inequality for All” and then write about what a model minority is. How is this label dangerous? Who does it serve?

Nguyen writes that “the end of Asian Americans only happens with the end of racism and capitalism.” Why does he say this? What leads him to believe that?

How does this essay challenge your thinking about minority groups in the U.S.?

Blog #6: (300 words minimum, due by 7:20 Thursday, Oct 22nd. Two comments due within 24 hours of blog due date). Carefully read the article “Paradoxes of American Individualism” and write a summary of the main argument.

Then, carefully read the Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman poems, and consider the differing perspectives on America presented in each. What is the problem with the model of individualism explained in the article in terms of the underprivileged people described in the Hughes poem? Who do you think Whitman is talking to in his poem—who is it about, who does it speak for and who does it leave out?

Prompt 7: Due Friday, Oct. 30th by 4:35 p.m. 300 words minimum. Please read “My Mother’s Dreams for Her Son, and All Black Children” by Hilton Als and respond to the following prompt: Choose two of the following quotations from the essay and analyze them. What does Als mean when he says these things? What is their significance to the overall narrative? Once you have written about two of these quotes, find and paste one more segment of the text that stood out to you and explain what interested you about it. 

“Standing by my mother’s living-room window, I tried, tentatively, to ask her why our world was burning, burning. She gave me a forbidding look: Boy, be quiet so you can survive, her eyes seemed to say.”

“The world around us was not the one we had worked hard to achieve but the quiet, degraded world that our not-country said we deserved. We couldn’t keep nothing, the elders said, not even ourselves.”

“Like any number of black boys in those neighborhoods, I grew up in a matrilineal society, where I had been taught the power—the necessity—of silence.”

“I don’t remember exactly how many times we moved; in those days, my focus was on trying to win people over, the better to protect my family, or—silently—trying to fend off homophobia, the better to protect myself. My being a “faggot” was one way for other people to feel better about themselves. My being a “faggot” let cops know what they weren’t.”

Prompt # 8: Due Friday, Nov. 6th by 4:35 p.m. 300 words minimum. Please watch the Ted talk “Want a more just world? Be an unlikely ally” and listen to Listen to “The Air We Breathe: Implicit Bias And Police Shootings” podcast. Respond in writing about the main takeaways from each of these pieces, and explain how they fit together. Then, in a new paragraph, discuss ways in which you could implement some of these ideas into your own life. Oftentimes, we don’t get involved with social justice issues that seem like they aren’t “about us.” We watch what’s happening, and we care, but we don’t know how to get involved, or even if we should. Do these two pieces shift your thinking about that at all? If so, how? 

Prompt #9: Due Thursday, Nov. 12th by 4:35 p.m. 300 words minimum. Please watch the Trevor Noah Clip and watch the film I am not your Negro and write a thoughtful response, in which you address the following questions: What is the purpose of a society based on a social contract? Who counts as a full citizen in a society, and what does that entail? Describe the project James Baldwin undertook and why you think he chose to discuss the lives of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medgar Evers. Then give your own reaction to the film. How does it sit with you? What does it make you think about? What is your biggest takeaway?

Blog # 10: (300 words minimum, due by 4:35 Thursday, Dec. 3rd): Watch “What Reading Slowly Taught Me About Writing” and respond thoughtfully. First, choose one of the reasons for reading the speaker gives, which speaks to you, and expand upon it. Why is this reason important? What does it mean to you?

For the second part of this post, I’d like you to revisit one of the earlier readings from the semester (this could be a podcast, documentary, or literal reading). Consider it with fresh eyes after having taken in the rest of the course content, and respond anew. Talk about what stood out to you about this reading—whether it changed your thinking about something, offered unexpected examples, introduced a new idea altogether, or was simply well told.