A Meta-Conversation on RACE

Meta-cognition: Thinking about thinking or thinking about learning

Meta-conversation: Thinking (or talking) about a conversation that will occur

Family Tree Brainstorm

• Where are you from? • Where are your parents

from? • Where are your

grandparents from? • Where are your great

grandparents from? • Where are your great-

great grandparents from? Have you met them? Do you know their names?

• Do you know anything else about your family history in the more distant past? How far back can you go?

The Obama Familyhttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/08/us/politics/20091008-obama-family-tree.html?_r=0

Slavery and Racism • “Slavery had not always been caught up with race. Europeans had

enslaved one another for centuries. The word itself derives from “Slav,” the group most often enslaved by other Europeans before 1400. Native Americans and Africans likewise enslaved their neighbors long before Europeans arrived. As Europeans sailed down the west coast of Africa, however, they traded with coastal tribes for captives from the interior. Slaves came to be more and more identified as dark-skinned Africans. Increasingly, whites viewed enslavement of whites, especially Christian whites, as illegitimate, while enslavement of Africans was acceptable. Unlike earlier slaveries, children of African Americans would be slaves forever. They could never achieve upward mobility through intermarriage with the owning class. The rationale for this differential treatment was racism. Racism arose around 1400 to justify this permanent form of slavery.” James Loewen

Jefferson and Sally

• What’s wrong with the title?

• What’s in a name? • In what ways are these two

unequal? • Race, Gender, Class • What is social status? • What are the effects of

slavery? • Lack of freedom, Lack of

control over family, Violence, Sense of racial inferiority

A Brief History of British Common Law

The Magna Carta: Fundamental Rights and Liberties from 1225

• Signed in 1225 (Middle Ages) • King John was a tyrant who

alienated everyone: nobles, merchants, peasants, and religious leaders; he was forced to sign a document limiting his power and establishing a government based on the rule of law.

• This document was the “law of the land” in England, and it led to the custom of parliament to put the king’s power in check.

• Due process was a fundamental component of the Magna Carta, and the British Colonists were very aware of their rights under the Crown. • King John of England (right) and an English baron

agreeing to Magna Carta. A detail from the bronze doors of the U.S. Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C.

Did Pocahontas Rescue John Smith?